Introduction

75% of the earth’s surface being covered by water does not give a guarantee that the earth itself has a sustainable means of water supply. This is because most of the water masses contain salty waters which are not safe for drinking neither can it be used for irrigation purposes. Desalination is the process by which this salt is removed from the water though it is an expensive process which not many countries can afford to do year in year out (Gleick, 2013). This leaves some scrambling for the available waters which has led to conflicts between countries over the fresh waters left.

Global water issues

One example of countries that have been having water issues is that of Jordan River between Jordan and Israel countries. According to the boundaries river Jordan is located in Israel, but other countries like Jordan, Palestine and Iraq have had interests in the waters (Shuval, 2015). This is because most of these countries are semi-arid areas and the only available water source is river Jordan. Israel, however, has remained firm over the years over the years to the extent where they have deployed military persons to guard the river boundaries. The other countries had intended to tap the river’s water to be able to supply their citizens with clean water.

Having limited access to limited fresh water in a local community/state

With the instance whereby a state or a community may be found as having limited access to fresh water, several consequences can be observed. One of them would be that people would hold strikes in a bid for the authorities to provide them with fresh water which is their responsibility. Secondly, people would begin scrambling for the little water that is available to the extent that the eruption of some violence scenarios is possible. Additionally, there would be high rates of immigration cases where people are likely to migrate to neighboring states or communities that have enough water supply systems (Gleick, 2013). This would lower the population n numbers of the people in the affected state or community. Lastly, there would be high cases of water-borne diseases that are caused by contamination. An example of this was the case in Flint Michigan where the pipes of water were aged and caused a lot of health hazards to the people there.

Involvement of local governments in controlling water access

Local governments have an obligation of making sure that their jurisdictions have enough waters to sustain their citizens. This, therefore, means that they should be fully involved in the provision of water services. One of their obligations is to make sure that everyone has access to water and the water should be clean to avoid the citizens suffering from water-borne diseases. The local authorities should also be involved fully in the setting of levies for those states that outsource water from other areas (Shuval, 2015). This is to help raise enough money for the maintenance of water distribution channels and staff. It should also make sure that there are enough water reservoirs to store water in case the dry season threatens its scarcity.

Conclusions

Water is one of the necessities that any living organism cannot survive without. It is, therefore, the work of the different authorities and governments to make sure that the citizens have enough water to keep them alive. Several countries have been at war due to the water issues where the scramble for fresh and quality water continues. Desalination has been one of the ways where the majority of salty waters can be turned into fresh water for both consumption and farming. However, this method is very expensive, and this makes it less sustainable.

References

Gleick, P. H. (2013). Water in crisis. Pacific Institute for Studies in Dev., Environment & Security. Stockholm Env. Institute, Oxford Univ. Press. 473p, 9.

Shuval, H. I. (2015). Are the conflicts between Israel and her neighbors over the waters of the      Jordan River Basin an obstacle to peace? Israel-Syria as a case study. In Environmental Challenges (pp. 605-630). Springer, Dordrecht.