I already stated that the lack of potable water causes every year the death of 200 million kids all over the world. Surprisingly, according to the Italian website www.tiscalinet.it , more than one billion people don’t even know what potable water is. Future considerations about the water issue aren’t very reassuring. Actually they are not reassuring at all: in about 20 years, 0.2 gallons of water will cost ten times more than 0.2 gallons of gasoline.
Thus, we shouldn’t feel surprised if the agriculture will be affected by this matter: irrigating the fields will not be convenient anymore. As a consequence the production of grain and certain kinds of food will be influenced in the same way.
Furthermore, as I already reported in the previous blog, in 2025 the world population will increase by 16%.
The production of cereals will have to increase accordingly. As a consequence the demand of meat and fish will grow. But breeding requires the agriculture in order to feed the animals, and in turn the agriculture necessitates water.
Researchers estimate that to face the resulting situation, the actual territory used for the agriculture will have to be expanded by 43.5 million hectares. Just think about the devastating impact it would have on the environment. Still, averagely, every day an American citizen consumes 171 gallons of water.
I believe all these data make us think that we should probably learn to manage water in a more thrifty way and to not waste it pointlessly. Nevertheless, the majority of people do so in developed and wealthy countries, where men and women don’t make any effort to save one of the most vital sources the nature gave us, which in the near future will be called “the blue gold.”