Water is the basis for the functioning of all ecosystems on the planet. Many countries are experiencing an acute shortage of clean fresh water today. According to the UN experts, for 1/6 of the population access to drinking water is limited, and for 1/3 access is limited even to industrial water used in everyday life - water that cannot be called drinking.
What causes the fresh water problem?
First of all - population growth. Every year the number of people on the planet increases by about 85 million, which, accordingly, increases the consumption of water.
Pollution of the environment with various kinds of waste, including sewage, is growing exponentially. Already in our century, the world's needs will far exceed fresh water supplies.
Global warming is causing more intense melting of glaciers that store two-thirds of all fresh water. In the Alps, for example, glaciers lose up to 1% per year. It turns out,that the loss is every 10 years - 10%, every 20 years - 20%. And this means that by the end of this century there will probably be nothing left of the glaciers. The same applies to Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia. Moreover, the melting of Alaska's glaciers has doubled.
Plus, the melting of the ice in the Arctic has accelerated, which will inevitably cause an increase in the level of the World Ocean. And this means that in the next 20-30 years London, Berlin, Paris, New York, St. Petersburg and other cities may be under water.
According to previously classified statements by Pentagon analysts, climate change will soon cause major floods and catastrophes on a global scale. It is not difficult to guess about the consequences: serious military conflicts will begin. Drinking water will become strategic object number 1. Its reserves will decrease so much that the government of most countries will be forced to protect their resources by resorting to weapons, and mass destruction. Wars for the possession of fresh water sources can begin all over the world. The authors of the report equated the current situation with what was happening about 8,000 years ago: crop failures, famine, epidemics, mass migrations, fierce wars.
Fresh water in Russia accounts for a third of the total world supply. It turns out that it is Russia that automatically becomes the main object of encroachment, a potential tidbit for most countries.
What is Lake Baikal worth! This is the purest fresh water, the volume of which is equal tothe volume of the five Great Lakes located in North America, and amounting to 23,000 cubic meters. km! This is 20% of the total fresh water of the entire planet. Baikal has no analogues.
In fact, fresh water has already become a strategic commodity. We are no longer surprised by plastic bottles with plain water on store shelves, although 20 years ago in the CIS (former USSR) this was a rarity. More than 100 billion liters of water are sold annually, the profit from the sale is fantastic: a trillion dollars annually (and this is approximately). This is about half the income of all oil companies. Everything goes to the fact that a business built on pure water (without quotes, in the literal sense) will become the most profitable. It is possible that clean fresh water will become scarce even for our children…
