A recent NASA study has found that 21 of the 37 largest aquifers in the world are being depleted much faster than they can be refilled. This is worrying, since most of the water we use for consumption and growing crops comes from aquifers. We're already seeing a rise in food prices due to the drought in California. Further water shortages could spell disaster for our food system.
Global Water Crisis
But, what's more worrying is that the situation is likely to get worse. As many regions are having more frequent and severe droughts, they draw more from the aquifers, depleting the supply at a faster rate.
The depletion of water around the world, while alarming, shouldn't come as any surprise. Every Little Drop, an organization devoted to water conservation, said that between 1900 and 2000, worldwide water use increased six-fold, and the UN expects the situation to get “considerably worse” by 2030.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch reports that water scarcity is our biggest problem worldwide.
At present, droughts are happening on every single continent in the world, save Antarctica, reports the Global Drought Information System. In the US, drought-stricken California is currently drawing 60% of its water from aquifers.
What are you doing to prepare for water shortages? Let us know in the comments.
Drought is more difficult to detect and it can last longer compared to other weather occurrences. However, it does not mean you cannot plan for a water crisis and take the appropriate measures to help protect yourself from the effects of shortage. That is right, this weather-related phenomena is something you can prepare for.
Knowing where your supply comes from can help you figure out what you can do to mitigate the impact of water crisis. For example, the water supply may be from groundwater or from surface water such as river.
There are many ways to prepare yourself for water crisis, and these include the following:
- Dig ponds or reservoirs to collect water in the event that it does rain.
- Have buried cisterns to overcome the effects of evaporation that go with drought situations.
- Collect 55-gallon drums to store treated water, which are viable when your tap runs dry or the water source gets contaminated.
- Prioritize the water usage in your home like drinking, bathing and food preparation. These are more essential than watering the lawn.
- Find leaks in your property and fix them. Leaky water pipes can easily waste huge amounts of water.
The key to dealing with a water crisis always has been storage. Storing water can make a difference between a good harvest and crop failure, as well as life and death.
Want to know more? Check out these related articles:
- Getting and Storing Water
- How to Survive Without Running Water
- Prepper Tips | Tricks to Hide Your Water Storage
For awesome survival gear you can’t make at home, check out the Survival Life Store!
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr!
**Disclaimer: All content on this site is for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer .**
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 23, 2015, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
First I’ve heard of aliens stealing our H2O….are they taking it to Mars?
No. They are shipping it back to Mexico.
So that’s why it is named the RIO GRANDE!
Emily,
First, all that really needs to happen is build Solar Powered “Desalination” plants along the East and West coast line providing drinking an irrigation water.
Second, put the large tunneling machine to work building a water duct from Lake Superior down to the head waters of the Colorado river to build up the reserve water in Lake Powell.
By doing all this can you imagine all the people it would put back to work? And end the shortage of water.
You will have a heck of a fight to tap Great Lakes water. Water levels are already dropping in the Great Lakes thanks to Corp of Engineers dredging. Desalination I agree with. And tell Nestle to quit bottling water from aquifers in Northern California.
21 of 37 are going down. That means that 16, compared to 21, are not, perhaps increasing. Not exactly a disaster. Stop agriculture and its no problem. Simple.
Converting corn to ethanol is an extreme drain on our aquifers that nobody seems to want to talk about.
Look at California water shortage,
it is basically a mild desert climate. There are climate cycles of wet and dry
weather always. The environmentalists have a crazy view of global warming that
in the 1970’s was global cooling back in the hippie days of pot smoking.
Global warming BS is a political way to get more taxes from taxpayers.
Water shortage is caused by politics, like the Fresno farmers not getting water for crops, PETA type nuts protest to help dump freshwater into the San Francisco area ocean for a non-native bait fish called Delta Smelt.
Taxpayers are getting hosed by corrupt politicians for water failure of
broken water pipes.
The original father of governor Brown built many water storage structures,
reservoirs and so on. The son Brown is taking propositions voted on and
destroying dams in California, agenda 21 is the environmental movement
here.
The cities there have been saving water, but politicians has been dumping fresh
drinking water either into the sea or on land to save the wildlife, BS!
The same politicians will ticket homeowners for some water spilled on the
sidewalk up to $10,000 a fine, go figure.
This state is like Greece, protecting the illegal’s here but not take
responsibility in caring for the drought situation, like build more
water storage.
San Diego has been building only one desalinization plant in Carlsbad for water.
Sacramento is secretly trying to cut back on funds to help water storage programs
because of the environmentalists running the state government.
If you like pot smoking, vegetarian food and giving taxpayers
money to free loaders and not working on full funded water storage systems,
then come live here.
Many conservatives are moving out of state, the liberals
shall inherit California. No Comonsense.
We need a good water storage systems in California.