5.7B - The Causes of Water Insecurity
The causes of water insecurity are physical (climate variability, salt water encroachment at coasts) as well as human (over abstraction from rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers, water contamination from agriculture, industrial water pollution.)
Physical causes of water availability/insecurity:
Human causes:
Exacerbated by global warming and climate change.
- climate - annual precipitation
- the water is then moved and distributed by the drainage network
- evaporation and evapotranspiration
- discharge into the sea
- saltwater encroachment at the coast
Human causes:
- contamination of water by agricultural, industrial and domestic pollution
- over-abstraction from rivers, lakes and aquifers and the acute need to replenish these dwindling stores
Exacerbated by global warming and climate change.