Techniques Used to Provide Fresh Water the Worlds Arid Areas - Essay Example

Techniques used to Provide Fresh Water the worlds Arid Areas The world has over 70 percent of its body covered with water although only less than 3 percent of that water is fresh water. additionally, not all the amount of this fresh water is accessible to the ecosystem for use since about 70 percent of the fresh water is frozen leaving only about 30 percent of the fresh share of water accessible for use by both fauna and flora. This makes fresh water one of the most valuable resource in the planet today especially considering that the planet's population continues to grow while the amount of available fresh water reduces. The distribution of fresh water is not even in various parts of the world with parts such as Europe and the Americas relatively having more access to fresh water as compared to most parts of Africa and Asia. This has primarily been attributed to factors such as aridity and poor climatic conditions which have led to increased unavailability of this fresh water (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2011). The aim of this report is to outline the feasible ways through which fresh water is made available in arid areas where the resource is quite scarce. The paper will have a look at five ways that are been commonly used in these regions in order to provide this much-needed resource to the flora and fauna existing in this areas. 2.0 Types of Techniques used in Arid Areas to Provide Freshwater 2.1 Desalination In simple terms, desalination refers to the process of turning seawater into usable fresh and drinking water. Desalination is considered by many to be one of the oldest method of purifying water used today and it involves removing salts from the sea water in treating the water. Desalination has been hailed as one of the most efficient methods of treating water and subsequently providing fresh water in large scale as seen in the arid areas such as the Northern part of Africa where its use is widespread. According to the International Desalination Association (2013), there were over 17,000 desalination plants spread across 150 countries in the world in 2013. These plants added over 21.1 billion US gallons into the fresh water capacity in the same year. The same body states that over 300 million people relied on the desalinated water in 2013 in numerous parts of the globe (especially the arid areas). Despite these figures, the desalination process is still underutilized according to various scholars with most asserting that there is more potential in this technique towards providing more production of fresh water especially in the arid areas of the world. There is a common call among various circles for installation of more desalination plants especially in a majority of arid areas that have an easier access to ocean waters and the seas which are a prime source of source water. Some of these countries include Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia among others. Desalination has also been used to supply fresh water to other non-arid regions such as Florida and California which despite not being arid, they suffer from a lack of fresh water. In fact, these two areas are some of the world’s biggest contributors of desalinated water. As has been discussed, desalination is one of the most feasible techniques that can be used to provide fresh and usable water to areas of aridity as well as those with a general lack of fresh water. 2.2 Recycling waste water Sewage and other wastes carry with them dirty and largely unusable water both to the flora and fauna. In some parts of the world, sewage water is left untreated meaning that water is wasted and not recovered after the initial use. As such, this is not usually the case in most arid regions and countries of the world where water in general is quite a scarce commodity. Therefore, waste water treatment in these areas is a common technique that facilitates conversion of waste water from sewages and other sources to be converted to clean, fresh and usable water in the long run and as a way of conserving the limited resource. Typically, waste water treatment is carried out using ways such as biological water treatment. The process is relatively slower as compared to the desalination process although it still makes the cut as one of the feasible techniques usable in the arid areas. In most cases, however, this process can pose a challenge especially to countries that are struggling economically since it requires relatively expensive equipment and setup costs that might serve as an impediment to implementation in such countries (Henze 2008, p. 128). Nevertheless, waste water treatment is a feasible technique of fresh water generation in arid areas. 2.3 Ground Water Harvesting This can be quite an elusive method of collecting fresh water from an arid area especially in areas where the ground water is facing depletion. Surface and ground water are bound to face depletion as projected by various authorities and thus arid areas are more prone to this trend as compared to other areas of the world. However, drilling boreholes is still a popular method of collecting fresh water in the arid areas where ground water has yet to face depletion. This way, water tapped from the ground is accessed in its pure form which is fresh and does not need any further treatment unless found to be unfeasible for consumption. However, it is important to note that once these boreholes (drilled holes) are left open, they are susceptible to various forms of contamination which makes them unsuitable sources of fresh water if not cared for. In some cases, water collected from boreholes in arid areas might have traces of salts although in most cases, cheap ways of removing the salts such as boiling or use of chemical treatment methods rectifies this in an easy way. 2.4 Construction of dams In some arid areas, there are seasons when the regions receive large amounts of rainfall thus dams construction come in handy to ensure collection of large amounts of the fresh rain water. In other cases, the dams are used to preserve water that has been treated through the desalination process or collected from the boreholes. As such, the water from the occasional rainfall in these arid regions can be harvested by the residents of the areas which can provide relief to the other sources of fresh water such as groundwater. As such, this allows the easy to deplete groundwater sources more room to redeem themselves. Either way, the dams can be a feasible source of fresh water in arid areas. 2.5 Water filtration A small-scale method that can be used by residents of arid areas to collect fresh water is through the use of sustainable water filtration. This method employs the use of cheap and easily available materials such as tree seeds, cow manure and prickly pear in filtering water collected from unpacified sources such as contaminated boreholes. This method may not be very feasible in a large scale although it is a feasible technique for small-scale use. 3.0 Conclusion The paper has outlined various ways through which fresh water is made available in arid regions of the world where it is a scarce commodity. The paper has discussed various techniques popularly used in arid areas including desalination, dam construction, rain water harvesting (during the rainy season), groundwater harvesting (through drilling of boreholes) and the least popular sustainable water filtration technique. It is evident from this paper that the methods outlined are feasible for use in providing fresh water to both flora and fauna in this regions. Bibliography Henze, M. (2008). Biological wastewater treatment: principles, modelling and design. London, IWA Pub. International Desalination Association. (2013). Desalination by Numbers. Available at http://idadesal.org/desalination-101/desalination-by-the-numbers/ accessed 31 Mar. 15. Pulsipher, L. M., & Pulsipher, A. (2011). World regional geography: global patterns, local lives. New York, W. H. Freeman & Company. Read More