Band 6+: Lack of fresh water is becoming a global issue of increasing importance. What problems does the shortage of fresh water cause? What measures could be taken to overcome these problems?

Fresh water shortage is becoming an imperative issue on global scale. In my opinion, the main problems from a lack of fresh water are a decline in public health and detrimental effects on agriculture, which can be solved by storing rain water and desalting sea water.

As water is vital for people’s daily lives, a lack of fresh water leads to serious problems. First is a decline in public health. Being unable to gain access to clean water forces people to resort to using polluted water, which contains toxic chemicals from factories and antibiotics used in agriculture. These chemicals, even just a tiny amount, can make human organs malfunction and kill them from the inside. Another problem is the bad effects on agriculture. Since plants rely on water to survive, and similar to humans, these plants can not live on polluted water. Therefore, fresh water is necessary to keep the agriculture industry running. To illustrate, a drought in Vietnam back in 2018, which meant a severe shortage of fresh water, led to a crop failure of unprecedented scale.

One viable solution to the lack of fresh water is to store rain water. In fact, this method has been in use since ancient times and has been playing an important role in providing water for agriculture in many parts of the world. People can build a reservoir for rain water storage during rain seasons, when there are many rains, and water from the reservoir can later be used for daily needs or agriculture. Another solution is to desalt sea water. As we have an endless source of sea water, if we can get rid of the salt that makes humans and plants alike unable to consume sea water, we will have as much fresh water as we need. For example, a company in India has developed an electrical device which allows people to desalt sea water using solar power, therefore solving the lack of clean water in the local area.

In conclusion, the lack of fresh water brings about serious problems including a decline in public health and damage to the agriculture industry. To solve this, we can either store rain water or desalt sea water using existing technology.