China has 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of the world’s freshwater. In the past five years, China’s consumption of bottled water has almost doubled from 19 billion to 37 billion liters. Water has become more and more polluted as the population of China continues to grow. All of this together has water in China becoming more and more expensive.
I think that the main problem with water is unequal distribution. We should find a way to distribute water based on population so that all countries have access to clean drinking water. Providing clean drinking water to developing countries would eliminate the need to travel days for clean water, allowing for more education and growth.
This is a very serious issue because not only is there unequal distribution of water across the globe which we must deal with, however, the real problem is the mass consumption of plastic that China is using, which must come to a hault.
I do not necessarily see this as a problem. The problem is the population of China. Without a large population, the demand for water decreases. Good writeup though!
well that is all well and good but the problem here lies in the enormously waist full industries that not only use up the fresh water but pollute the rest as well.
China definitely has its issues… bad air and too many people get all the attention. Lack of water may be the ultimate game changer though. I know they are trying to build pipelines to move it around.
You are correct to say at the heart of the issue is the unequal distribution of water (CA is a great example). However, I have to wonder how you imagine different countries providing more fresh water for developing countries- big pipelines? Lots of bottles? Seems like a challenging endeavor considering how much water would need to get moved around- takes a lot of energy.
Hope you continued to be intrigued by this super important game changing topic this year Claire. Thanks for posting.
The problem is amplified by the fact that China has such a large population. If their growth were limited, then we would see a direction relationship between population and water consumption.
Thats crazy I did not know that China had 7% of the worlds freshwater. Do you think that there will be a solution to this?
That is extremely concerning, but also companies should be aware of the problems that are happening and the country as a whole work together to attempt to prevent all their freshwater from being fully polluted.