In the class we mentioned 19 proposed strategies to the water crisis problem. Select a specific site (area, city, county, ..etc in the US or international) of your choice and describe it’s current water profile/problem, then identify top three strategies that can work effectively in the site that you identified. The suggested strategy will depend on many factors such as the level of education, the public’s reorientation, the type of resources, the availability of technology, the current state/quality of main water resource, the local governance…etc) Explain why did you choose these three strategies.
Urban & Environmental Studies 
Water – Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan Area
Phoenix Metropolitan, also known as the Valley of the Sun is located is the central-southern part of Arizona, and it covers an area of about 9,200 square miles. City of Phoenix, which recognized as the capital of the Southwestern United States was funded in February 25, 1881. Before the European arrived at the beginning of the 16th Century, there were several groups of Native Americans who inhabited the region – Hohokam people, O’odham and Sobaipuri tribes. Archeological evidences indicate that while the Hohokam lived in the region they developed a vast system of irrigation canals to make the desert area arable. Some of these canals later became used for the modern Arizona Canal and the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct.
As of the beginning of 2018, the Phoenix Metropolitan is estimated to have over 4.5 million people, with over 1.6 million live in the city of Phoenix alone; moreover, according to the World Population Review data, Phoenix is the 5th most populated city in the United States. Actually, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Phoenix added over 32 thousand people to its population between July 2015 and July 2016, and was at the top in the U.S. for population growth.
Phoenix geographical location is located around coordinates 33° N, 112° W, and its elevation is 1,086 feet. The coordinates indicate that this rapidly growing metropolitan is located in an area of high barometric pressure, which influence hot and dry weather that form deserts. According to the U.S. Climate Data, Phoenix average temperature is 75.05 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average annual precipitation of rainfall is 8.04 inches.
Phoenix metropolitan has three water sources – surface water (rivers and lakes), groundwater pumped from wells, and reclaimed water, used for agriculture, and industrial cooling and landscaping. The actual sources are – the Colorado River, Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Cap Canal, Salt and Verde Rivers, and Roosevelt Lake and Dam. According to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, the water usage per person per day is about 100 gallons, in compare to San Francisco where the average daily usage stands on 40.60 gallons. Research studies that were conducted in 2014 indicate that if people will continue using the same amount of water in the Phoenix area, water can run out in less than a decade.
There are three strategies that can help preserving water at the Phoenix metropolitan area, and provide longer-term solution for the growing population and community. First, is education about water consumption. As noted, the average daily usage of water per person is much higher than many other parts of the United States; it mostly due to hot summers and the common usage of swimming pools. Education programs should be implemented in schools and universities to better educate about reduction in water consumption, and ways that people can reuse their water. This basic plan can lead to change in lifestyle and responsible water consumption. Second, there must a proper municipal, state, and federal plans for population growth across the nation. Due to geographic location and climate change, the rainfall precipitation around the Phoenix metropolitan is likely to decrease. Therefore, city planner must develop a long-term water plan for the region, together with limitation for population capacity. This can possibly prevent a future disaster of the area drying out of water. And last, cost of water should be increased in order to reduce water consumptions. I believe that it should be a maximum capacity for water usage, and those who pass the limit will have to pay higher water fees. For example, a proposed legislation can be that people who has swimming pools at their homes will pay higher water fees. Ideally, the city should restrict new residential development from building private pools, and invest in community pools.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Water Crisis – Kuwait
Kuwait is a country in the middle east that shares its borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia with a huge desert landscape. This area has become incredibly susceptible to water issues due to the effects of climate change. There are no major bodies of water like rivers and lakes that offer freshwater. Their main source of water is groundwater with little to no renewable water sources. The temperatures varying from as high as 130, and as low as 1 Fahrenheit create an environment that has a rapid evaporation rate and soil that isn’t good at absorbing moisture. Due to the rapid evaporation rates, Only a small percentage of the 121 mm of rainfall gets displaced into the aquifers and is readily accessible. There are no sustainable developments and this is due to the pumping of water at such a high demand, and the reliance on groundwater flow from Saudi Arabia. Water is being pumped at a faster rate than it is being restored and this also has increased the salinity of the water. This also leads to watershed crisis. Water systems are altered in chemistry and sea pollution is generated. The water process of converting it into a drinkable water source increases in price as well. According to the Future Directions International website,”The groundwater withdrawal rate is 255 million m³ per year, 12 times its annual groundwater inflow.” These projections are not sustainable for the population of four million and counting. The population has been at an increase and has been projected to keep increasing. There is also a misuse of high-quality water due to the lack of fee to of equipment for water extraction. Kuwait is also one of the countries with the highest water consumption; coming at 450 liters per day. This high demand for water has lead to the use of treated water. As more of the water is used for industrial use and agriculture, less is left for commercial use.
The three solutions that would benefit the water crisis in Kuwait would be inventing new water conservation technologies, developing energy efficient desalination plants, and population control. Due to the weather, there is a fast rate of evaporation so very little water is accumulated in the aquifers. The water from rainfall is absorbed into the atmosphere too quickly to properly be collected and also absorbed into the soil. The lack of moisture in the soil could also lead to other issues regarding agriculture and infrastructure development. By developing water conservation technologies this could also benefit society and the economy in the long run. Since Kuwait is located in the desert and doesn’t have lakes and rivers available, the technologies would have to be more efficient in gathering the groundwater and preventing the water from evaporating so quickly. This technology would need to be an investment in the solution of the future and would most likely be a trial and error project for a while, but would also provide a long-term solution. The second solution would be developing energy efficient desalination plants. By using thermal desalination or reverse osmosis desalination there would be a significant shift in the level of water scarcity in the region. Saudi Arabia has already been able to produce water by using these processes and continue to venture into research to make this form of water purification sustainable and a long-term solution. Desalination plants that are powered by renewable energy are essential to the water crisis and bringing a more abundant and reliable source of water. The third solution to the water crisis would be population growth. The population of Kuwait is projected to keep increasing and Kuwait is also the third in the water for water consumption. Water is being pumped at a higher rate than it is being restored. By introducing population control there would be lower demand for water and this would lead to less pumping, and allow the groundwater to get restored at an appropriate rate and solve the increased problems that come with pumping water at such a high rate. A law could be enacted by the government to limit the number of children a family could have. Also, only 50% of the population in Kuwait are natives. The other have are immigrants. There could be an increase in regulation regarding non-natives and hold stricter policies so there would be a lower population. These regulations could be temporary, so they are able to stabilize and regulate their water crisis problem and better coordinate resources to planning and developing new technologies in their region.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Frank Delgado
Professor Amir Gohar
ENVS 300
24 February 2017
The Flint Water Crisis
The Flint Water Crisis: it was a very well publicized environmental catastrophe that left over 100,000 people without access to clean water. The levels of children with high amounts of lead in their bodies doubled. People had to use bottled water for all of their water needs and the city was declared to be in a state and federal state of emergency. How did all of this insanity take place?
In 2012, the city of Flint, Michigan began a project to build a pipeline that brought water straight from Lake Huron to Flint instead of using recycled water from the city of Detroit. Years later in 2014, the plan is executed and water begins to flow from the nearby Flint River instead of coming from Detroit. Just four months after this, problems began. On two separate occasions, water was shut down in parts of Flint due to the discovery of high levels of fecal coliform bacteria. Months after these events, the city of Flint received an offer to again take water from Detroit and discontinue the extraction of water from the Flint River, which they decline. Shortly after, residents begin to received discolored, murky water which garners media attention. Some civilians even report that their children were developing rashes. Just a month later- the big news hits. According to EPA tests, the water in Flint, Michigan has over seven times the maximum amount of lead in parts per billion. Old pipes being corroded by the water seems to be the cause, but either way an environmental catastrophe has already taken place. Now the question remains, how could this have been avoided?
The most important change that would have helped this situation from becoming a catastrophe is improved infrastructure. The cause of the lead leeching into the water was because of old, rusty lead and iron pipes. As the water pumped through these old pipes, iron and lead were leeched into the water which contaminated 40% of Flint homes. Had these pipes been replaced and properly cared for, this entire situation could have been avoided.
The second most important solution for this crisis would have been to stick to the original water source from Detroit. That is, use recycled wastewater. The city of Flint had been taking water that had been recycled from Detroit for decades, and no problems with it were reported. Additionally, the city declined to return to the old way of managing water when problems appeared. Negligence on behalf of government officials is also to blame in this disaster.
The last important key to avoiding this whole mess would have been to improve policy and regulations regarding water quality in this area. How could this have happened? How could the city government of Flint been allowed to continue with a project that it already knew to be failing? The entire situation was a mess that could have been avoided. After this event heads did roll, with multiple lawsuits and firings taking place in the following months. That said, the action taken by the state and local government should have been preventative and not reactionary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hong Kong is a city in the Southeast Asia. According to the Figure 1.1 on lecture notes page 11, Hong Kong’s renewable water resources per capita is vulnerable. The freshwater supply for Hong Kong residents is mainly from the Mainland China and Hong Kong has started importing water from Dongjiang-Shenzhen since 1960. Up till now, it supplies 70 to 80% of freshwater for Hong Kong residents. Because the freshwater is from import, Hong Kong has always been trying to save this vulnerable resource. Unlike in America, there are only 15% of Hong Kong residents are using freshwater for flushing toilets, the rest are using seawater. In my opinion, desalination, recycle waste water, and improve distribution infrastructure can help prevent water shortage in the future.
Hong Kong is an island and surrounded by ocean. It provides an easy access to seawater for desalination which can be a long term freshwater supply. Relying too much on import cannot solve the root of the problem of domestic freshwater shortage. If there is any problem in Dongjiang and cannot provide freshwater anymore, Hong Kong will be in huge trouble. Even though the first desalination plant will be built in 2020, it can only provide 5% of freshwater consumption. The government said once the plant being extended, it can provide 10% but there is no framework provided. The first desalination plant already cost four billions of Hong Kong dollar so it may attract opposition from tax payers if government plans to extend the plant. Therefore, the government should invest more on the production of desalination plant, how to increase the freshwater supply and decrease the price.
Besides desalination, recycling waste water can also be a way to prevent freshwater shortage in the future. Hong Kong has a population of 7,500,000 in 2,755 sq.km. Population density is 6544/ sq.km. With this high population density, there is a large volume of grey water being produced every day, from both businesses and households. Even though there are 13 sewage plants in Hong Kong can provide recycling grey water service, the Hong Kong government stopped the project after a trail on using recycled water on non-drinking purposes like street cleaning and flushing toilets. The trial went good but there were no follow ups anymore. Since the trail was good, I think the Hong Kong government can carry out the actual recycling waste water project.
Improving distribution infrastructure can also definitely help with preventing water shortage in the future. There are 1300 of burst pipe cases every year which wastes about 20% of the freshwater supply. In 2011, 200 million cubic meters of freshwater were wasted because of broken pipes. Even though the Water Supplies Department has launched the “Replacement and Rehabilitation Programme of Water Mains” to replace the aged water mains since 2000, the pipe problem still wasted 18% of freshwater in 2013. However, according to the data shown in the Water Supplies Department (wsd.gov.hk), numbers of pipe bursts and leaks is decreasing continuously which means that this project of improving pipes quality works on preventing pipes going to burst or leak, just more work can be done to decrease freshwater being wasted because of pipe problem.
In my opinion, these three strategies are the most effective ways to prevent freshwater shortage in the future. Some may accuse that education should be the most effective one but in my opinion, it is not true. The high Hong Kong population density leads to a high basic water consumption. It is still impossible to rely on the domestic freshwater supply even though every one Hong Kong resident is not wasteful. Also, education on this topic has launched since the 60s so I think desalination, recycling waste water and improving distribution infrastructure are the most effective ways to prevent freshwater shortage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The site I have chosen to focus on for this blog is Kathmandu Valley, of Nepal. Nepal is a landlocked country located in South Asia, surrounded by China in the North and India in the East, West, and South. The area covered by this country is 147,181 square kilometers (56,827 sq. mi), and has population of 28.98 million. According to Nepal Census of 2016, the population of Kathmandu valley consisted of 2.4 million. Nepal’s main water resources come from natural rivers as the country lies on the foot of world’s highest mountains, one of which is the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. There are more than 6000 rivers flowing in this small country. Other sources of water are traditional water system such as stone spouts, dug wells, tanks and freshwater ponds. The government supplies piped water network but is barely enough for the population. In 2015, earthquake of 7.8 Mw, destroyed the nation’s water supply infrastructure, since then the country has been facing water crisis, henceforth, the scarcity of clean and safe drinking water has heightened tremendously. Out of many, the main water problem I noticed that could be mitigated in this developing country and its metropolitan cities like Kathmandu valley are Pollution, Lack of maintenance (water networks by the government), and Usage-waste of natural water resources. These are the areas we will be strategically focusing on below.
Out of the 19 strategies provided by Professor Gohar, the best three I picked to tackle the challenges faced by the population of Kathmandu Valley are: Improving the water catchment and harvesting; Community-based governance and partnerships; and Addressing water pollution. There are other strategies that could work effectively such as educating population about managing water ecosystem, and improving distributional infrastructure in order to keep the vulnerable population especially children from transmitting water borne diseases. Transferring technologies with the form of water projects from the developed countries into this site could also enforce immense positive impact on the water quality. However, these strategies can be implemented once the water crisis lessened as these seem to be more of a sustainable long term strategies. The three strategies picked here are more vigorous and can bring more quicker results as Kathmandu Valley is in need at the moment. The reason for choosing the first strategy, improving the water catchment and harvesting, is because of its practicality. Kathmandu Valley consists of 5 seasons, one of them is monsoon, where it rains for months, this is the perfect season to collect rainfall and studies have shown that people could rely on rainfall water for months. This will ease the problem of water scarcity which will refrain people from using more contaminated water supplies. Reason for the second strategy which is community-based governance and partnerships is to elevate the experiences of those whose voices merit more influence. No one is more eager to fix their water crisis than the people living in that area. There would be a massive progress if we could mix the strategy: developing and enacting better policies and regulations with our second strategy and giving people some authority to voice their opinions on how to solve this problem with the help of their government. Whether, it be the time schedules that government provided to supply clean water, or it be new regulations on businesses around that area who could be affecting the water sources and supplies. The third strategy chosen here is addressing pollution, and the reason for this is because, it is clear that Kathmandu valley has enough water sources, the main issue here is that they do not have enough “clean” water sources and most of this is because of the water pollution caused by the population. If we could find the roots of the water pollution, it could be a broken sewage pipeline, or factory or business dumping their waste in the water sources, or poor waste management system provided by the government, cleaning that area, and solving that problem possible. This would help in quicker clean water accessibility to the public, eventually, leading into a better ecosystem of the environment and the world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
India’s Water Problem and Solutions
Water is a valuable resource that all humans need to survive. Water is necessary for all types of things of human life, its especially necessary for good hygiene and health. Without water a person can die from dehydration in ten days, and drinking contaminated water can spread an array of dieses, some that can kill. One place for instance that has a huge problem with water is India. Its not that India doesn’t have fresh water, it does, but water is extremely polluted. Pollution comes from untreated sewage, agriculture run off, and industrial waste runoff and un-regulation. Three ways this water issue can be fixed in India is through the development of new technology, better policy and regulations, and better water collection techniques.
The polluted water in India has a chance of being used if it was to get filtered and cleaned. This can be possible though new and improved technology, technology that can recycle water that is dirty, or block pollutants from getting into the water. This new technology can take the pollution coming from factories and store it somewhere away from water. Another way new technology can save the people of India is through the cleaning up of chemical and physical waste that is already in the water. Also new technology would need to address agriculture runoff, a good way would be to make a technology that again can somehow store this runoff and take it straight to a recycling location. If technology were created to make sure that water gets to designated recycling areas, the water of India would be a lot cleaner. If new technology were to be established it would allow the people of India to access the water that is already there, and actually use it without the fear of getting sick or even dying from the water.
The next way the people of India can use there water is through better policy and regulations. Currently the India government does not regulate the things that go into the their water. There is a lot of concern to human health due to the garbage that runs in the water. Better policy formation for agriculture and big factories would drastically decrease the amount of pollution that would go in to the water. The policy formation would be the first step, but without strong regulations policies are useless, so the Indian government should fine polluters that are breaking water policies huge fine, the money achieved from these fines can go back to helping build better technology for water usages.
The third way India’s government can improve the water problem is making better collecting centers in India of rainwater. Like mentioned previously India has water, but India also has a lot of people, to the point where India’s water situation is described as an “under pressure situation”. The amount of people in India surpasses the amount of availability, so water collection is crucial. The Indian government could make collection sites where water can be stored. If water is stored it has a less chance of getting polluted, and becomes available to the people right away. Also the building of dams and water controls can help collect water to make sure all of it is utilized properly.
In conclusion the water problem in India is massive, and polluted water is a big concern. The water in India is unusable until better technology to clean and recycle the water is created, better policies and regulations are made, and better collecting sites are establish to make sure all people have water. If these three implications are added and followed India would be in a better situation when it comes to water.
LikeLiked by 1 person
After the industrial revolution taken place in the mid-18th century, the economy has been boosted and so has the population. People started to detach the agricultural lifestyle and started to be industrial labors because of higher income. Then, the industry area is known as the urban area and the green area is known as the rural area. Since more people moved to the urban area, the city has been saturated and spread to the rural area, making the green area to be a city too. This phenomenon is called urbanization, meaning the increasing number of people that live in urban areas. It will also lead to the physical growth of the urban area, horizontal, vertical or both (lecture note P.5). Urbanization is usually linked to deforestation as urbanization requires cutting trees to change it to a city. The deforestation rate has increased in this century and there are three main reasons that can explain it.
First, it is due to the higher consumption of food. Because of industrialization, the economy has boosted, people can afford more to give children more nutrients. Also, people are more willing to have more children. Therefore, the basic demand for food has been increased. To meet the demand, urban forest and other green areas can only be given up and cleared to an agricultural area to meet the food demand.
Second, it is due to the higher consumption of living space. Because the higher demand for food can be met, mortality rate deceased then population increased. As people prefer to live in the city rather than the rural areas, the urban areas get saturated quickly. It encourages people to enlarge the urban area horizontally, leading deforestation. Also, the living stress from the city made people want to explore the green area more, leading deforestation.
Third, it is due to the higher consumption of raw materials. As population increased, the consumption of raw material increased. It created a business to sell raw materials like the loggings for making paper. This encouraged people to cut more trees to earn more money and this led to rapid deforestation.
Take Brazil as an example, they have a huge amount of raw material. The logging industry can make a lot of money by selling lumbers to all over the world for making paper. This is one of the main reasons for the rapid deforestation taken place in the Amazon rainforest.
Boosted population is the main causes of rapid deforestation. Even though it is unavoidable as the population is unlikely to fall, there are still some ways to decrease the deforestation rate.
First, to have more law and regulations. Take Hong Kong as an example, even though the population density is 6997 people per square km, 40% of the land has been regulated as green area and no urban development can be made in those areas. It can help decrease the deforestation rate as trees cannot be removed anthropogenically.
Second, developing green business can help decreasing deforestation rate. As green businesses emphasize on reuse and recycle, they will use the recycling material and they will recycle their discard. Therefore, less raw materials will be needed and thus deforestation can be avoided.
Third, education is important to save the trees and save the Earth. Every little step helps. If everyone reduces their consumption, for example using both sides of a paper instead of one and put it into the recycling bin after using, consumption will be lowered and the stress on deforestation can be relieved. Education can make more people willing to do that. I have just lived in America less than two years but I found that many Americans do not act green. I can always see people using disposable water bottles, taking unnecessary paper towels, or putting recyclables and compostable discard to the trash bin. I think it is because most of the Americans don’t know what the consequences are and were not taught to think about the environment. Therefore, I think education can help with lowering the deforestation rate.
There are still a lot of ways to save the Earth by reducing deforestation but I think these three ways are the most effective ones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is a great case of mismanagement of water in India. With years of complacency, political and institutional incompetence, and the indifference felt on every political level, the waters of India are beyond polluted, as polluted water has been streaming into the rivers that had once been pristine and clear. Organic and hazardous pollutants are dumped into the public bodies of water that are used by the population for various means. Nothing meaningful is being done to offset the pollution with the population continuing to rise, as well as the continued use by the public for various uses like that of burials or bathing. One of the solutions that has been utilized is using groundwater to counteract the needs and wants of the cities, but the use and dependence on the groundwater has drained the little, limited resource resulting in the drainage of the public waters. This would result in having more pollutants than water in the rivers, streams, and lakes. The water quality of India would also be deteriorated as the constant use of the groundwater would create poor quality in streams, rivers, and lakes. The quality of water has been slowly downgrading from poor qualities to worse situations that have actually spread disease and caused infestations from the pollutants. There is also an increase of costs that come from the limited resource that is available. As more people become more and more dependent
One of the solutions that I would propose would be to address the pollution that has been overlooked for some time now. The pollution of the rivers has caused massive infestations throughout the population that live by the riverbanks. The World Bank estimates that 21 percent of communicable diseases in India are linked to unsafe waters and the lack of hygiene practices. In order to address the pollution that has plagued the waters, the issue must be to educate people about there being an epidemic that has caused such unnecessary deaths. To stop the dumping of every kind of waste into the waters would be a start, but that would be only the beginning. After the dumping and waste disposal has been banned, the next step to address the pollution would be to cleanse the waters till the purity is restored. There are methods of keeping the bodies of water clean, like the banning of organic and hazardous pollutants, regulating the traffic that enters and uses the rivers, streams or lakes, and hefty fines imposed on those that break the new law that would partially fund the cleansing of the waters. With these new restrictions and regulations, the rivers, streams and lakes would be able to replenish themselves with clean, fresh water, and would restore the bodies of water to their former glory.
The next solution to purify the waters from the pollution and massive deterioration would be to have community-based governance and partnerships. With community-driven organizations leading the charge in changing the quality of the water in the rivers, streams, and lakes. The people that live near the riverbanks have much more to be invested in having the waters clear and crystal, and would serve with more determination to have the quality of the water be as high as possible. The people in the community would also have the greatest benefits that would serve to improve the lives of the people. The waters that would be banned for the time being would later be supplemented through the temporary wells and pools that would be sanitary and healthy for consumption. This would eliminate the need for water while the rivers and streams are purified with systems that would collect the pollutants, leaving behind the clear water that would revitalize the rivers, streams and lakes. When the waters are clearer and of higher quality, the community would regulate it themselves with circulating committee chairs to avoid corruption. This would ease the tension off of the burden caused by the pressure caused by the need for clean, sanitary water.
The third step to the resolution of the water crisis that is felt by the people of India would be to holistically manage the fragile ecosystem of the rivers, streams, and lakes. To treat the waters with reverence and acclaim, is what must been done, to change the view and perspectives of how the rivers, streams, and lakes are used for in the future. Restoring the fragile balance that had been slowly unraveling must be done by replenishing the polluted waters that have been infested with toxic waste. There would be set-ups that would be installed in places that would collect the waste and clean the waters. By implementing these plans, the environment around the bodies of water will also be revitalized. The ecosystem will be restored with plants and animals returning, the flow of water would have a self-sustaining cleaning process.
With these three main solutions, the need for sanitary, pure water would slowly go back to manageable demands. The waters being restored to their former glory would bring forth health for the community, spreading love and productivity, rather than diseases that are preventable. The waters would also help reinstitute the ecosystem of the past, with the plants and animals returning to the lands of mystic waters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Water Crisis- Mexico City
Mexico City is at a crisis level when it comes to the state of their water resources. Of the 21 million residents of the capitol, many only have access to running water for part of the day and 1 in 5 residents of recieve a few hours of tap water a week. In the 1300’s the beginnings of Mexico City were created by the Aztecs on an island surrounded by lakes. When the spanish conquerors came, they built on to what the Aztecs had started creating a large city in a area that is at a high risk for flooding. In order to keep the city thriving, the surrounding lakes were drained in an unnecessary manner in order to provide for the new influx in population.
40 percent of Mexico city’s water is piped in from remote sources. Another 40 of that water is lost due to leaks in the pipes or from individuals stealing water from the pipes themselves in order to insure they have enough to survive. The fact that Mexico City was built so closely to large bodies of water has resulted in certain areas of the city sinking at about an average rate of 9 inches per year. There is also a lack of reliable infrastructure in the city. Since 2005, about $100 billion dollars has been spent on affordable housing projects. Unfortunately many of the developers of these neighborhoods cut corners leaving these areas without a reliable infrastructure for water and sanitation systems and well as subpar resistance when it comes to flooding. As temperatures continue to increase it is predicted that the annual rainfall for the city will fall by 20 percent, only adding to the already out of control problem the city has.
The first step that could be taken towards fixing the water crisis in Mexico city would be to improve the city’s distribution infrastructure. Many of the city’s pipes are leaking from the lack of maintenance and theft of the water from these pipelines. These leaks not only waste precious water, they also are a pathway for harmful toxins to enter the water supply posing a very serious health risk for those who are consuming it.
Another option that could be put into practice would be the use of an energy efficient desalination plant. This would allow for the water to be recycled so it can be put back to use instead of using more of the already scarce water when it is not necessary. It will allow the city to get back on track with all the residents having access to water as well as give the option to start creating reserves so that the city can be prepared in the event that there is another shortage.
My third recommendation would call for community-based governance and partnerships. In order to come to a solution, the government of Mexico city must look at their water crisis through the eyes of their citizens. They need to get the opinions of and understand exactly where all the problems in their water infrastructure lie and speak with members of the affected communities in order solve the problem completely. Member of the community also need to voice their opinions and let the government know which practices are working, and which are not. With cooperation on all levels the policies enacted will be much more effective in helping to resolve the water issue.
I chose these three strategies because i believe that with the current state of the city’s situation it is important to be taking every possible action to insure that no more water is wasted due to deteriorating conditions or lack of environmentally friendly technology. It is also important for the citizens to get involved and share their knowledge about how the infrastructure can be made more efficient in order to be able to provide safe water to all residents.
LikeLike