Geography, asked by Anonymous, 1 year ago

Write a paragraph of availability of water in present and past in
1. South Africa
2. UAE

Answers

Answered by hjsmohala
0
1 SOUTH AFRICA


Households in the Western Cape are most likely to have access to piped water, while those in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape are the least likely to have access to piped water.


2.UAE


The surface water is negligible and includes floodwater, water retained in dams, some very small streams, ponds and spring water. These are either confined or flowing when there are land slopes and are replenished by rainfall or groundwater.

Due to the UAE’s location in a dry belt region, rainfall is limited and floodwaters leak into the ground, especially in sedimentary areas. Thus, it is crucial to build dams to harvest rainwater and store surface water behind them and to help feed the aquifer, although most of it is lost to high evaporation. The average annual surface water flow through wadis (valleys) ranges from 23 million cubic metres (MCM) to 138MCM.[1]



Answered by abhi8210
0
Water supply and sanitation in South Africa is characterised by both achievements and challenges. After the end of Apartheid South Africa's newly elected government struggled with the then growing service and backlogs with respect to access to water supply and sanitation developed. The government thus made a strong commitment to high service standards and to high levels of investment subsidies to achieve those standards. Since then, the country has made some progress with regard to improving access to water supply: It reached universal access to an improved water source in urban areas, and in rural areas the share of those with access increased from 66% to 79% from 1990 to 2010.[4]
South Africa also has a strong water industry with a track record in innovation. However, much less progress has been achieved on sanitation: Access increased only from 71% to 79% during the same period.[4] Significant problems remain concerning the financial sustainability of service providers, leading to a lack of attention to maintenance. The uncertainty about the government's ability to sustain funding levels in the sector is also a concern. Two distinctive features of the South African water sector are the policy of free basic water and the existence of water boards, which are bulk water supply agencies that operate pipelines and sell water from reservoirs to municipalities.

In May 2014 it was announced that Durban's Water and Sanitation Department won the Stockholm Industry Water Award "for its transformative and inclusive approach", calling it "one of the most progressive utilities in the world".[5] The city has connected 1.3 million additional people to piped water and provided 700,000 people with access to toilets in 14 years. It also was South Africa's first municipality to put free basic water for the poor into practice. Furthermore, it has promoted rainwater harvesting, mini hydropower and urine-diverting dry toilets.

On February 13, 2018, the country declared a national disaster in Cape Town as the city's water supply was predicted to run dry before the end of June. With its dams only 24.9% full, water saving measures were in effect that required each citizen to use less than 50 litres a day. All nine of the country's provinces were effected by what the government characterized as the "magnitude and severity" of a three-year drought. According to UN-endorsed projections, Cape Town is one of eleven major world cities that are expected to run out of water.[6]


Water supply and sanitation in UAE

The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) faces several water management challenges, including the scarcity of groundwater reserves, high salinity levels in existing groundwater, the high cost of producing drinking water, limited re-use of water, and limited collection and treatment of wastewater outside the urban areas. With water demand growing annually, the country’s water infrastructure is under significant pressure. There is an increasing need to invest in infrastructure and water efficiency technology to meet the future demand and to avoid a shortfall. However, budget cuts, as a result of falling government revenues due to low oil prices, have affected existing projects resulting in calls for proposals and more innovation.  The government is managing the demand by investing in water efficient technology, energy efficient seawater desalination and in education.  To address the high cost to the government has reduced subsidies for water and power since January 2015 and increased tariffs in 2016 and 2017.

Published by Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), Environment 2030forecasts that both fresh and brackish underground water from U.A.E. aquifer systems will be exhausted within fifty-five years if mitigation measures are not taken.  The government has addressed this issue, by using waste treated water to increase the efficiency of water use for irrigation. In 2017, the Abu Dhabi Municipality reported that 76 percent of the water use in landscapes in treated water and plans to have all fresh water replace by treated sewage effluent by the year 2030.

The U.A.E. has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world (550 liters per day). As a result, the government is working to reduce demand by educating youth, reducing cost by eliminating subsidies, storing water in aquifers, regulating groundwater extraction, and investing in new energy efficient sea water desalination. As the main source of drinking water is from desalinization, the capacity is expected to increase steadily over the next few years, contributing 96.5 percent of all water produced by 2019.  By 2019, total production is expected to reach 2.19 bn cubic meters of water (up 205 mn on 2015 production projections). Currently, substantially all of the drinking water used in the Emirate is produced through thermal desalination, requiring the combustion of fossil fuel.  Measures to find alternative energy-efficient ways to produce drinking water are being explored.

Similar questions