Water Management
Water Management
Water is an abundant natural resource that is very crucial for the existence of life. Many scholars argue that water is life. Without water, there is no life. There are many sources of water such as rain, surface water and underground water. The mode or the method of water collection determines its water availability to support life. Even if water is abundant on the earth surface, it is not evenly distributed. Method of managing and conserving water makes it possible for it to be available to humans and to wildlife. Water is a useful resource for animals, plants, and human. Plants use it for photosynthesis, animal for drinking and habitation and human for domestic use, irrigation and transportation. For instance, water for domestic use is useful in cooking, bathing, washing, drinking, irrigating yards, and for feeding domestic animals. According to Strang (2004), each homestead needs about 300 gallons in the United States to sustain its domestic use daily. Being a useful resource and limited in availability conflict arises on ownership and management of this resources. Water conflict usually arises when countries, States, and communities restrict access to water resource. This may lead to disputes that usually arise when water users have opposing interest in the use of this resource. A wide range of water conflict has been known to happen, but in many cases, they are rear to happen.
Water conflict usually arises when the question of ownership arises. Various states and countries have set legislation on the management conservation and use of water resources. States have various laws that control their water territory. For instance, land rocked countries have to pay a certain levy to countries that have coastline for them to access the ocean water that is used mainly for transportation when importing or exporting goods to overseas countries. Oceans are also divided into territories and lakes especially those that exist within a boundary. Fishers are not supposed to fish beyond a given point. Countries or states are supposed to guard their territory. Water can be privatised whereby the members of the public are not supposed to access privately owned water sources without the owner’s permission. Philosophers of water conflict argue that water is a natural resource just like air and anyone should not have any restriction because it is a gift of nature. Due to this argument, many conflicts have arisen due to water restraints. The distinction between the two philosophies is that water is a gift of nature, but private entities manage it. The parties that manage water are the one supposed to own water resource and impose regulation towards it.
On my side, I agree with the philosophy of enacting regulation or privatisation of water resources even though proactive cooperation can be able to solve water conflict that arises constantly. The parties must agree on the management and conservation of water. Even if water is an abundant resource and exists naturally, it can become scarce due to its misuse. Water pollution is one of a detrimental factor that can make water not to be fit for use by both wildlife and human. Polluted water is dangerous to the life of both aquatic and land animals. It can cause death even to a human being. Control measures have to be enacted to control water resources to avoid thing like water pollution. Even if water is naturally available methods of collection of water becomes a problem. For instance, rainwater is transformed into surface water, and it can seep to the ground to become underground water. To fetch this underground water it needs one to dig a well or boreholes which need the power to pulls it. The domestic use of water in the United States exceeds the carrying capacity (which is 225000 gallon per household per year) of hydraulic power used to pull water from underground water sources and other sources. The growing demand for water is mainly because of agricultural use. 85% California and 90% in Arizona of water are used for agriculture. The ideal rate of carrying capacity in the United States is 270 tonnes per minutes for the household. The problem can be solved by the use of technology to pull underground water and to find other economical ways rather than over-reliance on agriculture.
The problem with domestic water in the United States relies mainly on water purity and supply. The final water user expects water to be drinkable and have to no bad taste and odour. Impurities happen to contaminate water in the process of transportation. The major contaminants of water are dissolved mineral elements, oxygen and pathogen. If any of this contaminants happen to enter into water, they render water unsafe for drinking. Water treatment is one of the important measures that is supposed to be done to water before it reaches the final consumer. Groundwater is the most difficult to purify, but united states government have enacted various acts to govern purification of these water such acts are safe drinking water act (1974), super fund act 1980 and resources conservation and recovery act (1976). Water treatment as a method of water management improves the quality of water. Water treatment removes impurities and contaminant that may be present in water. Water treatment can be done using various ways such as chlorination, aeration, sedimentation, filtration, coagulation and disinfection. Managing agriculture water can be managed through flood control, building storage reservoir, pumping to high ground, building channels, improving drainage and crop application.
Treatment of water will make water safe for human consumption. Sedimentation, coagulation and filtration will remove all the solid particles that are present in water. Disinfection and chlorination will ensure that water does not contain microorganism. Management of water for agriculture would ensure that water is available for other domestic use. In doing so, the conflict of water shortages would reduce. The short-term benefit of water management and treatment would ensure that water is the safety of water supplied to a human for domestic use as well as the cases of household water shortages would be resolved if water that is used for agriculture is well managed. The long-term benefit of water management is that water catchment areas would be conserved thus reducing the cases of depletion of underground water. The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) agency can deal with my water management and treatment case. This is because the agency oversees all water resources management. It specifically acts as an oversight agency throughout the United States for irrigation and water supply. Since my management plan deal with the management of water supply for domestic and agricultural use; it will be the most appropriate agency since it is the largest supplier of water in the United States.
References
Strang, V. (2004). The meaning of water (p. 111). Oxford: Berg.
