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Water
*** Shopping-Tip: Water
:''This article focuses on water as it is experienced in everyday life. See
water (molecule) for information on the chemical and physical properties of pure water (H
2O, dihydrogen monoxide), and
Water (film) for the movie of the same name.''
Image:A girl in a swimming pool - underwater.jpg swimming pool.html" title="Meaning of 255px 255px|thumb|right|A girl in a [[swimming pool full of water.html" title="Meaning of thumb|right|A girl in a [[swimming pool">255px|thumb|right|A girl in a [[swimming pool full of water">thumb|right|A girl in a [[swimming pool">255px|thumb|right|A girl in a [[swimming pool full of water
'''Water''' (from the
Old English language Old English ''waeter''; c.f
German language German "Wasser", from
PIE ''*wod-or'', "water") is a
tasteless,
odorless substance in its pure form that is essential to all known forms of
life and is known also as the most ''universal
solvent''. It appears
colorless to the naked eye in small quantities, though it can be seen to be
blue in large quantities or with scientific instruments
[ See [http://www.deepocean.net/deepocean/index.php?science07.php deepocean.net] ]. An abundant substance on
Earth, it exists in many places and forms. It appears mostly in the
oceans and polar
ice caps, but also as
clouds,
rain rain water,
rivers, freshwater
aquifers, and
sea ice. On the planet, water is continuously moving through the
water cycle cycle involving
evaporation,
precipitation (meteorology) precipitation, and
runoff (water) runoff to the
sea.
Water fit for
human consumption is called
drinking water or "potable water". Water that is not specifically made for drinking, but is not harmful for humans when used for food preparation is called
safe water.
This natural resource is becoming more scarce in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. This may be referred to as the "water bubble", in analogy to the
dot-com bubble.
Currently, about 1 billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries have accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to
safe water and
sanitation during the
29th G8 summit 2003 G8 Evian summit [ [http://www.g8.fr/evian/english/navigation/2003_g8_summit/summit_documents/water_-_a_g8_action_plan.html G8 "Action plan" decided upon at the 2003 Evian summit] ]. Even if these goals are met (which will be difficult), they will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water supplies and over 1 billion without access to adequate sanitation facilities. Poor water quality and bad sanitation are killers; some 5 million deaths a year are caused by polluted drinking water.
Hardly surprising, since in the developing world, 90% of all wastewater still goes untreated into local rivers and streams. Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world’s population, also suffer from medium or high water stress, and 17 of these extract more water annually than is recharged through their natural water cycles {{fact}}. The strain affects surface freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes, but it also degrades groundwater resources.
Molecular properties
Forms of water
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{{seedetails|:Category: Forms of water}}
Water takes many different shapes on Earth:
water vapor and
clouds in the sky,
waves and
icebergs in the
sea,
glaciers in the
mountain,
aquifers in the ground, to name but a few. Through
evaporation,
precipitation (meteorology) precipitation, and
runoff (water) runoff, water is continuously flowing from one form to another, in what is called the '''
water cycle'''.
Because of the importance of precipitation to
agriculture, and to
mankind in general, different names are given to its various forms: while
rain is common in most countries, other phenomena are quite surprising when seen for the first time.
Hail,
snow,
fog or
dew are examples. When appropriately lit, water drops in the air can
refract sunlight to produce
rainbows.
Similarly, water runoffs have played major roles in human history as
rivers and
irrigation brought the water needed for agriculture. Rivers and
seas offered opportunity for
travel and
commerce. Through
erosion, runoffs played a major part in shaping the environment providing river
valleys and
river delta deltas which provide rich soil and level ground for the establishment of population centers.
Water also infiltrates the ground and goes into
aquifers. This
groundwater later flows back to the surface in
spring (water) springs, or more spectacularly in
hot springs and
geysers. Groundwater is also extracted artificially in
water well wells.
Because water can contain many different substances, it can taste or smell very differently. In fact, humans and other animals have developed their senses to be able to evaluate the drinkability of water: animals generally dislike the taste of
salty
sea water and the putrid
swamps and favor the purer water of a mountain spring or aquifer.
Water in biology and human civilization
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From a
biology biological standpoint, water has many distinct properties that are critical for the proliferation of
life that set it apart from other substances. Water carries out this role by allowing
organic compounds to react in ways that ultimately allows
replication. It is a good
solvent and has a high
surface tension, and thus allows organic compounds and living things to be transported in it. Fresh water has its greatest
density at 4°
Celsius C, then becoming less dense as it
freezing freezes or
heats up from this point. As a stable,
polar molecule prevalent in the atmosphere, it plays an important atmospheric role as an absorber of
infrared radiation, crucial in the atmospheric
greenhouse effect without of which, the average surface temperature would be −18° Celsius. Water also has an unusually high
specific heat capacity specific heat, which plays many roles in regulating global and regional
climate, such as the
Gulf Stream climate, allowing life to deploy itself. Because it absorbs strongly in the
infrared, it has a very slight blue color to it due to the removal of a small amount of red light which passes through it. The blue color is only apparent when it is in mass quantities, such as lakes or the ocean.
Water is a very good
solvent, chemically similar to
ammonia, and dissolves many types of substances, such as various
salts and
sugar, and facilitates their
chemical reaction chemical interaction, which aids complex
metabolisms.
Some substances, however, do not mix well with water, including
oils and other
hydrophobic substances.
Cell membranes, composed of
lipids and
proteins, take advantage of this property to carefully control interactions between their contents and external chemicals. This is facilitated somewhat by the surface tension of water.
Water drops are stable due to the high surface tension of water caused by the strong intermolecular forces called cohesive forces. This can be seen when small quantities of water are put onto a nonsoluble surface such as
polythene: the water stays together as drops. On extremely clean
glass the water may form a thin film because the molecular forces between glass and water molecules (adhesive forces) are stronger than the cohesive forces. This property plays a key role in
plant transpiration.
In biological cells and organelles, water is in contact with membrane and protein surfaces that are hydrophilic, that is, those surfaces that have a strong attraction to water.
Irving Langmuir observed a strong repulsive force between hydrophilic surfaces. To dehydrate hydrophilic surfaces—to remove the strongly held layers of water of hydration—requires doing substantial work against these forces, called hydration forces. These forces are very large, but decrease rapidly over a nanometre or less. Their importance in biology has been extensively studied by
Parsegian. They are particularly important when cells are dehydrated by exposure to dry atmospheres or to extracellular freezing.
A simple but environmentally important and unique property of water is that its common solid form,
ice, floats on the liquid. This solid phase is less dense than liquid water, due to the geometry of the strong hydrogen bonds which are formed only at lower temperatures. For almost all other substances and for all other 11 uncommon phases of water ice except ice-XI, the solid form is more dense than the liquid form. Fresh water is most dense at 4°C, and will sink by
convection as it cools to that temperature, and if it becomes colder it will rise instead. This reversal will cause deep water to remain warmer than shallower freezing water, so that ice in a body of water will form first at the surface and progress downward, while the majority of the water underneath will hold a constant 4°C. This effectively insulates a lake floor from the cold. While this behavior may seem obvious, even intuitive, it should be noted that almost all other chemicals are denser as solids than they are as liquids, and freeze from the bottom up.
A common misconception about water is that it is a powerful conductor of
electricity (risks of
electric shock electrocution explain this popular belief). Any electrical properties observable in water are due to the
ions of mineral salts and
carbon dioxide dissolved in it. Water does self-ionize (two water molecules become one hydroxide anion and one hydronium cation), but only at a very slight, almost immeasurable level. Pure water can also be
electrolysis electrolized into oxygen and hydrogen gases but without any dissolved ions, this is a very slow process and thus very little current is conducted. Many
bottled water companies exploit another common misconception, advertising both
purity and
taste, even though pure water is tasteless.
Civilizations have historically flourished around rivers and major waterways;
Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, is situated between two major rivers. Large metropolises like
London,
Paris,
New York, and
Tokyo owe their success in part to their easy accessibility via water and the resultant expansion of trade. Islands with safe water ports, like
Singapore and
Hong Kong, have flourished for precisely this reason. In places such as
North Africa and the
Middle East, where water is scarcer, access to clean drinking water was and is a major factor in human development.
Astronomical position of Earth and impact on its water
Image:Water_droplet.jpg thumb|right|250px|Impact of a water droplet.
Scientists theorize that most of the universe's water is produced as a byproduct of star formation, though no one has witnessed a star form. Gary Melnick, a scientist at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, explains: "For reasons that aren't entirely understood, when stars are born, their birth is accompanied by a strong outward wind of gas and dust. When this outflowing material eventually impacts the surrounding gas, the shock waves that are created compress and heat the gas. The water we observe is rapidly produced in this warm dense gas."
[ {{cite news | title=Discover of Water Vapor Near Orion Nebula Suggests Possible Origin of H20 in Solar System | publisher=The Harvard University Gazette | date=April 23, 1998 | url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.23/DiscoverofWater.html}} ]
The coexistence of the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of water on Earth is vital to existence of life on Earth. However, if the Earth's location in the
solar system were even marginally closer or further from the
Sun (ie, a million miles or so), the conditions which allow the three forms to be present simultaneously would be far less likely to exist.
Earth's mass allows
gravity to hold an
Celestial body atmosphere atmosphere.
Water vapor and
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide a
greenhouse effect which helps maintain a relatively steady surface temperature. If Earth were less massive, a thinner atmosphere would cause temperature extremes preventing the accumulation of water except in
polar ice caps (as on
Mars (planet) Mars). According to the
solar nebula model of the solar system's formation, Earth's mass may be largely due to its distance from the Sun.
The distance between Earth and the Sun, the combination of solar radiation received and the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere ensure that Earth's surface is neither too cold nor too hot for liquid water. If Earth were more distant from the Sun, most water would be frozen. If Earth were nearer to the Sun, its higher surface temperature would limit the formation of ice caps, or cause water to exist only as vapor. In the former case, the low
albedo of
oceans would cause Earth to absorb more solar energy. In the second case, a runaway
greenhouse effect and inhospitable conditions similar to
Venus (planet) Venus would result.
It has been proposed that life itself may maintain the conditions that have allowed its continued existence. The surface temperature of Earth has been relatively constant through
geologic time despite varying solar flux, indicating that a dynamic process governs Earth's temperature via a combination of greenhouse gases and surface or atmospheric albedo. This proposal is known as the ''
Gaia hypothesis''.
Human uses of water
Image:Sprinkler03.jpg thumb|250px|left|Water pressure in a sprinkler
All known forms of life depend on water. Water is a vital part of many
metabolism metabolic processes within the body. Significant quantities of water are used during the
digestion of food. (Note however that some
bacterium bacteria and
plant seeds can enter a
cryptobiotic state for an indefinite period when dehydrated, and come back to life when returned to a wet environment).
About 72% of the fat free mass of the
human body is made of water. To function properly the body requires between one and seven
litres of water per
day to avoid
dehydration, the precise amount depending on the level of activity, temperature, humidity, and other factors. However, most of this is ingested through other foods or beverages (hot tea being often used in deserts to avoid dehydration, etc.) It is not clear how much water intake is needed by healthy people. However, for those who do not have kidney problems, it is rather difficult to drink too much water, but (especially in warm humid weather and while exercising) dangerous to drink too little. People do often drink far more water than necessary while exercising, however, putting them at risk of
water intoxication, which is frequently fatal. The "fact" that a person should consume eight glasses of water per day cannot be traced back to a scientific source
[ [http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/283/5/R993 "Drink at least eight glasses of water a day." Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8 × 8"?] by Heinz Valdin, Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire ].
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China.">right|150px|A manual water [[pump">thumb|right|150px|A manual water [[pump in
China. The latest dietary reference intake report by the US
National Research Council recommended 2.7
liters of water total (including food sources) for women and 3.7 liters for men
[ [http://www.iom.edu/report.asp?id=18495] ]. Water is lost from the body in
urine and
feces, through
sweating, and by exhalation of water
vapor in the breath.
Humans require water that does not contain too much salt or other impurities. Common impurities include chemicals and/or harmful
bacterium bacteria, such as
Vibrio. Some solutes are acceptable and even desirable for perceived taste enhancement and to provide needed
electrolytes.
Water as a precious resource: politics of water
:''See
water resources for information about
fresh water supplies; see also
:Category:Water and politics Category:Water and politics for articles treating about water politics''
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Because of the growth of
world population,
consumption mass consumption and
pollution, the availability of
drinking water per capita is shrinking. For this reason, water is a strategic resource in the globe, and an important element in many political conflicts. Some have predicted that clean water will become the "next oil", making
Canada, with this resource in abundance, possibly the richest country in the world. There is a long history of conflict over water, including efforts to gain access to water, the use of water in wars started for other reasons, and tensions over shortages and control
[ [http://www.worldwater.org/conflict.html A Chronology of Water-Related Conflicts] ].
UNESCO's World Water Development Report (WWDR, 2003) from its
World Water Assessment Program indicates that, in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30%. 40% of the world's inhabitants currently have insufficient fresh water for minimal
hygiene. More than 2.2 million people died in
2000 from
diseases related to the consumption of contaminated water or
drought. In 2004, the UK
charity WaterAid reported that a child dies every 15 seconds due to easily preventable water-related diseases. Fresh water, now more precious than ever in our history for its extensive use in agriculture, high-tech manufacturing, and energy production, is increasingly receiving attention as a resource requiring better management and sustainable use.
= Water in the OECD countries
=
With nearly 2 000
cubic metres of water per person and per year, the
United States leads the world in water consumption per capita. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (
OECD) countries, the U.S. comes first for water consumption, then Canada with 1 600 cubic metres of water per person per year, which is about twice the amount of water used by the average person from
France, three times as much as the average
Germany German, and almost eight times as much as the average
Denmark Dane. Since 1980, overall water use in Canada has increased by 25.7%. This is five times higher than the overall OECD increase of 4.5%. In contrast, nine OECD nations were able to decrease their overall water use since 1980 (
Sweden, the
Netherlands, the United States, the
United Kingdom, the
Czech Republic,
Luxembourg,
Poland,
Finland and Denmark)
[ [http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm Water consumption indicator] in the OECD countries ] [ {{cite news | title=Golf 'is water hazard' | publisher=BBC News | date=March 17, 2003 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2857587.stm}} ].
Ninety-five percent of the United States' fresh water is underground. One crucial source is a huge underground reservoir, the 800-mile
Ogallala Aquifer Ogallala aquifer which stretches from
Texas to
South Dakota and waters one fifth of U.S. irrigated land. Formed over millions of years, the Ogallala aquifer has since been cut off from its original natural sources. It is being depleted at a rate of 12 billion cubic metres a year – amounting to a total depletion to date of a volume equal to the annual flow of 18
Colorado Rivers. Some estimates say it will dry up in as little as 25 years. Many farmers in the
Texan High Plains, which rely particularly on the underground source, are now turning away from
irrigated agriculture as they become aware of the hazards of overpumping
[ {{cite news | title=Ogallala aquifer - Water hot spots | publisher=BBC News | date=? | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/03/world_forum/water/html/ogallala_aquifer.stm}} ].
In
Mexico City, an estimated 40% of the city's water is lost through leaky pipes built at the turn of the century
[ {{cite news | title=Mexico City - Water hot spots | publisher=BBC News | date=? | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/03/world_forum/water/html/mexico_city.stm}} ].
In
Spain, which has been the victim of many droughts over the years, tens of thousands protested in 2002 against the Government's 4.2 billion euro proposal to channel water from the
Ebro River Ebro to provide much needed supplies for tourism and agriculture in
Valencia,
Almeria and
Murcia. The Ebro ends in a
river delta delta which is an important
national park, especially for
migratory birds.
= Water in the Middle East
=
The
Middle East region has only 1% of the world's fresh water, which is shared between 5% of the world's population. Thus, in this region, water is an important strategic resource. By 2025, it is predicted that the countries of the Arabian peninsula will be using more than double the amount of water naturally available to them
[ {{cite news | title=Water shortages 'foster terrorism' | publisher=BBC News | date=March 18, 2003 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2859937.stm}} ]. According to a report by the
Arab League, 2/3 of Arab countries have less than 1 000 cubic meters water per person per year, which is considered the limit
[ "Major aspects of scarce water resources management with reference to the Arab countries", Arab League report published for the International Conference on water gestion and water politics in arid zones, in Amman, Jordan, December 1-3, 1999. Quoted by French journalist Christian Chesnot in {{cite news | title=Drought in the Middle East | publisher=Monde diplomatique | date=February 2000 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2000/02/08chesnot}} - French original version freely available [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/02/CHESNOT/13213.html here]. Compare with the 1 600 cubic meters of water used per person and per year in Canada, for example ].
Jordan, for example, has little water and
dams in other countries have reduced its available water over the years. The
1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace stated that Israel would give 50 million cubic meters of water per year to Jordan, which it refused to do in 1999 before backtracking. The 1994 treaty stated that the two countries would cooperate in order to allow Jordan better access to water resources, notably through dams on the
Yarmouk River [ See 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, annex II, article II, first paragraph ]. Confronted by this lack of water, Jordan is preparing new techniques to use non conventional water resources, such as second-hand use of irrigation water and desalinization techniques, which are very costly and are not yet used. A desalinization project will soon be started in
Hisban, south of
Amman. The
Disi groundwater project, in the south of Jordan, will cost at least $250 million to bring out water. Along with the
Unity Dam on the Yarmouk river, it is one of Jordan's largest strategic projects. Born in 1987, the "Unity Dam" would involve both Jordan and
Syria. This "Unity Dam" still hasn't been implemented because of
Israel's opposition, Jordan and Syrian conflictual relations and refusal of world investors. However, Jordan's reconciliation with Syria following the death of
Hussein of Jordan King Hussein would make the project envisionable again
[ See Christian Chesnot in {{cite news | title=Drought in the Middle East | publisher=Monde diplomatique | date=February 2000 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2000/02/08chesnot}} - French original version freely available [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/02/CHESNOT/13213.html here]. ].
Both
Israel and Jordan rely on the
Jordan river, but Israel controls it, as well as 9/10 of the water resources in the region. Water is also an important issue in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict conflict with the Palestinians - indeed, according to former Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon quoted by Abel Darwish in the BBC, it was one of the cause of the
Six-Day War 1967 Six-Day War. According to the BBC, "with the
Tsahal Israeli army in control prohibiting
Palestine Palestinians from pumping water, and
Israeli settlements settlers using much more advanced pumping equipment, Palestinians complain of "daily theft" of as much as 80% of their underground water"
[ {{cite news | title=Analysis: Middle East water wars, by Abel Darwish | publisher=BBC News | date=May 30, 2003 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2949768.stm}} ]. Israelis in the
West Bank use four times as much water as their Palestinian neighbours
[ {{cite news .html">World Bank, 90% of the West Bank's water is used by Israelis ][ See Christian Chesnot in {{cite news title=Drought in the Middle East | publisher=Monde diplomatique | date=February 2000 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2000/02/08chesnot}} - French original version freely available [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/02/CHESNOT/13213.html here]. ]. Article 40 of the appendix B of the September 28, 1995 Oslo accords stated that "Israel recognizes Palestinians' rights on water in the West Bank".
The Syrian Golan also provides 770 million cubic meters of water per year to Israel, which represents a third of its annual consumption. The Golan's table water goes to the Sea of Galilee, which is Israel's largest reserve, which is afterward redistributed throughout the country by the National Water Carrier. Occupied since 1967, the Golan thus represents for Israel a strategic territory because of its water resources. [ See Christian Chesnot in {{cite news | title=Drought in the Middle East | publisher=Monde diplomatique | date=February 2000 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2000/02/08chesnot}} - French original version freely available [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/02/CHESNOT/13213.html here] ]. However, the level on the Sea of Galilee has dropped over the years, sparking fears that Israel's main water reservoir will become salinated. On its northern border, Israel threatened military action in 2002 when Lebanon opened a new pumping station taking water from a river feeding the Jordan. To help ease the crisis, Israel has agreed to buy water from Turkey and is investigating building desalination plants [ {{cite news | title=Israel - water hot spots | publisher=BBC News | date=? | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/03/world_forum/water.html/israel.stm}} ].
On the other hand, Iraq and Syria watched with apprehension the construction of the Atatürk Dam in Turkey and a projected system of 22 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers [ {{cite news | title=Turkey - water hot spots | publisher=BBC News | date=? | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/03/world_forum/water.html/turkey.stm}} ]. According to the BBC, the list of 'water-scarce' countries in the region grew steadily from three in 1955 to eight in 1990 with another seven expected to be added within 20 years, including three Nile nations (the Nile is shared by nine countries).
= Water in Asia
=
Image:Wasser Neves.jpg thumb|left|180px|A Mountain Stream
In Asia, Vietnam and Cambodia are concerned by China's and Laos' attempts to control the flux of water. China is also preparing the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River, which would become one of the world's largest dam, causing many social and environmental problems. It also has a project to divert water from the Yangtze to the dwindling Yellow river, which feeds China's most important farming region.
The Ganges is disputed between India and Bangladesh. The water reserves are being quickly depleted and polluted, while the glacier feeding the sacred Hinduism Hindu river is retreating hundreds of feet each year because of global warming, and deforestation in the Himalayas causing subsoil streams flowing into the Ganges river to dry up. Downstream, India controls the flow to Bangladesh with the Farakka Barrage, 10km on the Indian side of the border. Until the late 1990s, India used the barrage to divert the river to Calcutta to stop the city's port drying up during the dry season. This denied Bangladeshi farmers water and silt, and left the Sundarban wetlands and mangrove forests at the river's delta seriously threatened. The two countries have now signed an agreement to share the water more equally. Water quality, however, remains a huge problem, with high levels of arsenic and untreated sewage in the river water [ {{cite news | title=Ganges river - water hot spots | publisher=BBC News | date=? | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/03/world_forum/water.html/river_ganges.stm}} ].
= Privatisation of water companies
=
Privatisation of water companies has been contested in several occasions, due to bad quality of the water, increasing prices, etc. In Bolivia for example, the proposed privatization of water companies by the World Bank were met by Cochabamba protests of 2000 popular protests in Cochabamba in 2000, which ousted SUEZ, the French water company. SUEZ has started retreating itself from South America, due to various similar protests (in Cochabamba, but also in Buenos Aires in Argentina, as well as in Santa Fe, Argentina Santa Fe; in Córdoba, Argentina Córdoba, consumers took to the streets to protest water rate hikes of as much as 500 percent mandated by Suez). In South and Central America, Suez has water concessions in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico. "Bolivian officials fault Suez for not connecting enough households to water lines as mandated by its contract and for charging as much as $455 a connection, or about three times the average monthly salary of an office clerk", according to the ''Mercury News'' [ {{cite news | title=Bolivia's water wars coming to end under Morales | publisher=Mercury News | date=February 26, 2006 | url=http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13969197.htm}} ]. South Africa also made moves to privatize water, provoking an outbreak of cholera killing 200 [ {{cite news | title=Water privatisation: ask the experts | publisher=BBC News | date=December 10, 2004 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/2957550.stm}} ].
Regulating water distribution
Drinking water is often collected at spring (water) springs or extracted from artificial borings in the ground, or water well wells. Building more wells in adequate places is thus a possible way to produce more water assuming the aquifers can supply an adequate flow. Other water sources are the rainwater and river or lake water. This surface water, however, must be water purification purified for human consumption. This may involve removal of undissolved substances, dissolved substances and harmful microbes. Popular methods are filtering with sand which only removes undissolved material while chlorination and boiling kill harmful microbes. Distillation does all three functions. More advanced techniques exist, such as reverse osmosis. Desalination of abundant ocean or seawater is a more expensive solution used in coastal arid climates.
The distribution of drinking water is done through municipal water systems or as bottled water. Governments in many countries have programs to distribute water to the needy at no charge. Others argue that the market mechanism and free enterprise are best to manage this rare resource, and to finance the boring of wells or the construction of dams and reservoir (water) reservoirs.
Reducing waste, that is using drinking water only for human consumption, is another option. In some cities, such as Hong Kong, sea water is extensively used for flushing toilets citywide in order to conserve fresh water resources. Water pollution Polluting water may be the biggest single misuse of water; to the extent that a pollutant limits other uses of the water, it becomes a waste of the resource, regardless of benefits to the pollutor. As other types of pollution, this doesn't enter standard accounting of market costs, being conceived as externality externalities for which the market can't account for. Thus other people pay the price of this water pollution, while the private firms' profits are not redistributed to the local population victim of this pollution. Pharmaceuticals consumed by humans often end up in the waterways and can have detrimental effects on aquatic life if they bioaccumulation bioaccumulate and if they are not biodegradable.
The impact of water on religion and philosophy
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Water is considered a purifier in most religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Shinto. For instance, baptism in Christian churches is done with water. In addition, a ritual bath in pure water is performed for the dead in many religions including Judaism and Islam. In Islam, the five daily prayers can only be done after completing washing the body with clean water (wudu). In Shinto, water is used in almost all rituals to cleanse a person or an area. Water is mentioned in the Bible 442 times in the New International Version and 363 times in the King James Version. 2 Peter 3:5(b) states: ..."the earth was formed out of water and by water." (NIV)
Water is often believed to have spiritual powers. In Celtic mythology, Sulis is the local goddess of thermal springs; in Hinduism, the Ganga is also personified as a goddess. Alternatively, gods can be patrons of particular springs, river or lakes: for example in Greek mythology Greek and Roman mythology Roman mythology, Peneus was a river god, one of the three thousand Oceanids.
The Ancient Greece Greek philosopher Empedocles held that water is one of the four classical elements along with fire, earth and Air (classical element) air, and was regarded as the ylem, or basic stuff of the universe. Water was considered cold and moist. In the theory of the four bodily humours, water was associated with phlegm. Water (classical element) Water was also one of the Five Elements in traditional Chinese philosophy, along with earth (classical element) earth, fire (classical element) fire, wood (classical element) wood, and metal (classical element) metal.
Notes
See also
Image:Photo of two people reflected in a fish pond.JPG reflection (physics) right|thumb|255px|Two people [[reflection (physics)|reflected in the water of a fish pond .html" title="Meaning of reflected.html" title="Meaning of right|thumb|255px|Two people [[reflection (physics)|reflected">right|thumb|255px|Two people [[reflection (physics)|reflected in the water of a fish pond ">reflected.html" title="Meaning of right|thumb|255px|Two people [[reflection (physics)|reflected">right|thumb|255px|Two people [[reflection (physics)|reflected in the water of a fish pond
* Dehydration
* Desalination
* Dihydrogen monoxide hoax
* Distilled water
* Double distilled water
* Drought
* Ecohydrology
* Evapotranspiration
* Flood
* Flume
* Fountain
* Fresh water
* Heavy water
* Holy water
* Hydrography
* Hydrology
* Hydrosphere
* Irrigation
* Mineral water
* Origin of water on Earth
* Pond
* Precipitation (meteorology)
* Rain
* Safe water
* Sea water
* Spring water
* Transvasement
* Wastewater
* WaterAid
* Water (data page)
* Water (molecule)
* Water industry
* Water intoxication
* Water ionizer
* Water memory
* Water park
* Water purification
* Water quality
* Water quality modelling
* Water resources
* Water tank
* Water therapy
* Water torture
* World Ocean Day
* World Water Day
References
* OA Jones, JN Lester and N Voulvoulis, Pharmaceuticals: a threat to drinking water? ''TRENDS in Biotechnology'' 23(4): 163, 2005
* Franks, F (Ed), Water, A comprehensive treatise, Plenum Press, New York, 1972-1982
- Property of Water and Water Steam w Thermodynamic Surface
* PH Gleick and associates, The World's Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington, D.C. (published every two years, beginning in 1998.)
Water as a natural resource
*{{cite book | title=The World's Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources | first=Peter H. | last=Gleick | publisher=Washington: Island Press}} (Produced every two years; [http://www.worldwater.org data available here])
*{{cite book | title=Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity | year=1997, second edition| first=Sandra | last=Postel | publisher=New York: Norton Press}}
*{{cite book | title=Water Rights: Scarce Resource Allocation, Bureaucracy, and the Environment | year=1991| author=Anderson}}
*{{cite book | title=Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource | year=2003, revised edition| author=Marq de Villiers}}
*{{cite book | title=Water Wars: Drought, Flood, Folly and the Politics of Thirst | year=2002 | author=Diane Raines Ward}}
*{{cite book | title=Water and Power: The Politics of a Scarce Resource in the Jordan River Basin | year=1995| author=Miriam R. Lowi}} (Cambridge Middle East Library)
*{{cite book | title=Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West | year=1992 | first=Donald | last=Worster}}
*{{cite book | title=Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water | year=1993 | first=Marc | last=Reisner}}
*{{cite book | title=Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water | author=Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke | year=2003}}
*{{cite book | title=Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit | author=Vandana Shiva | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0745318371}}
*{{cite book | title=Troubled Water: Saints, Sinners, Truth And Lies About The Global Water Crisis | author=Anita Roddick, et al | year=2004}}
External links
{{commons|water}}
{{wiktionary}}
- UNESCO's World Water Assessment Program
- UNESCO Water Portal
- UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
- United Nations' World Water Development Report
- United Nations GEMS/Water Programme
- The World's Water, data, historical information on conflict
- Phase diagrams of water
- Oceans and Water Issues Page
- Scientific Facts on Water Disinfectants A faithful summary by GreenFacts of a leading scientific consensus report on Drinking Water Disinfectants published by the International Programme on Chemical Safety of the WHO.
- Residential water problems and markets Study paper from Helmut Kaiser Consultancy
- Water markets worldwide Study paper from Helmut Kaiser Consultancy
- World Water Forum
- Water Structure and Behaviour
- WaterAid
- SAHRA—Global Water Newswatch
- Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
- California Water Impact Network (C-WIN)
- BBC: The water debate
- BBC News (International): The Water Debate
- Tap Water Vs Bottled Water - Interesting site providing facts about tap and bottled water.
- ''E the Environmental Magazine'' piece on bottled water (Oct 2003).
- International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam
- US Geological Survey: Comprehensive discussion of the water cycle, in many languages
- Why is water blue?
- Water requirements in adults
- Climate change raises markets for environmental technology, drinking water and clean energies
- 'Unfreezable water', bound water and water of hydration
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