SmartCity News-Blog
Water is Life
Water is Life
Water is the salty breeding ground of our origin, a breathtaking circulatory system. We have built our civilizations on the shores of the oceans and the banks of rivers rich in water. There is nothing we fear more than the lack of water, or the abundance and floodings.
Water is life, the existence of man, animal and fauna depends on it. The value of water on our planet – and probably not only on planet Earth, but everywhere else in the universe – is second to none compared to any other raw material, be it gold, silver or oil. Considering all those facts makes clear, how valuable and worth it is to protect our water.
Freshwater Resources on Earth
(Source: National Geographic)
We live on a planet that is almost completely covered with water, more than 97 percent of which are salt water and 2 percent are trapped in ice and snow. So, less than 1 percent is available to irrigate fields, to cool electrical systems and heat our homes, for washing and cleaning, and serve as drinking water. Isn’t this an alarmingly small amount?
The total volume of fresh water is 35 trillion liters (US english: 35 quintillion)
- 10.55 trillion (30.1 percent) under the earth’s surface in cavities and water-bearing layers
- 24.36 trillion (69.6 percent) frozen in icebergs, glaciers, perpetual snow and permafrost
- 118,639 trillion (0.3 per cent) found in rivers, lakes, wetlands (this amount also includes water in plants, animals and in the atmosphere)
In addition, the production of our food, clothing, industrial and consumer products requires huge amounts of water. We use two thirds of the available water for our food production alone. With the world’s population growing at 83 million per year, water consumption is increasing exponentially.
This means that, in the overall balance, humanity is consuming water at a much faster rate than our planet can regenerate its reserves.
Here are some current figures (based on 1 kilo of the respective product):
- Beef – 15.497 liters
- Pork – 6,309 liters
- Chicken meat – 3.918 liters
- Cold cuts – 11.535 liters
- Sliced cheese – 4,914 liters
- Yoghurt – 1,151 liters
- Plums or cherries – 1,612 liters
- Bananas, apples, grapes – 859 liters
- Avocado – 1,284 liters
- Corn – 909 liters
Interesting enough: a person who eats meat regularly, consumes 60 percent more water than a vegetarian.
With our consumer products things don’t look any better, rather worse:
- 1 Pair of jeans – 11,000 liters
- 1 Cotton bed sheet – 10.600 liters
- 1 T-shirt – 2,900 liters
- 1 Hamburger – 2,400 liters
- 1 Cup of coffee – 140 liters
The situation gets even worse looking at electronic products: the production of one single smartphone requires 18,000 liters of water.
And the Conclusion is …?
Mankind is negligent with the most valuable raw material on our planet, or, in other terms: Mankind is destroying its own livelihood at a breathtaking speed. However, before it comes to that point, other effects, related to that, will lead to the destruction of life much earlier.
And „the risks of water-related disputes are growing .. in part because of growing scarcity over water“, said Peter Gleick, co-founder of the California-based Pacific Institute, which jointly published the report with WRI and The Water, Peace and Security Partnership.
An example: European countries with their high standard of living, import food and consumer goods in large quantities from Asia, Africa and South America. This means, they consume the water of exactly these countries. This will lead to political conflicts in the foreseeable future. Some countries – especially in the Far East and Middle East – are systematically cutting off neighbouring countries. By building dams, the neighbours are practically drained.
Climate change – whether man-made or not – intensifies this effect. Thirst, the lack of drinkable water on the one hand and floodings on the other hand, destroy animals and people alike, cause mass migration and, in the worst case, can be the cause of war.
With consideration to this development, we, at GoToMarket Solution, have made water with all its complexity to the topic of our mission. Together with our partners, scientists and proven experts of various professions, we hope to pursue a positive influence on current issues concerning the handling of water, life in water, water purity and water purification.
Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 14 of the United Nations (out of 17 SDGs all together) are dedicated to the issue “water”:
– SDG 6: Access to clean water
– SDG 14: Seawater and life under water
