The Global Water Crisis, Part 2 of 2

In part 1 we explored water scarcity in Europe and Asia. As the drought persists across the globe, we continue on today’s program by highlighting the water crisis happening in North, Central, and South America and Africa.

In the west of the United States, water is the new gold, the most sought-after commodity. For states like Utah and Wyoming, for Arizona, California, for Nevada, New Mexico, and colorado, water, or the lack of it, has become a huge problem. Besides water shortages, the historic drought is making water in The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta saltier. However, more than 40 river gauges in the Mississippi River Basin are reporting low water levels. The river water is so low that barges are getting stuck on sandbars, and people can walk to Tower Rock, a massive island in the middle of the Mississippi River that is typically surrounded by water and only accessible by boat.

Just a few hours drive from the US border, the water shortage is worse in Mexico, and residents are queuing up for water.

In South America, countries are also experiencing droughts. The production and quality of crops have also been heavily affected in Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, with Chile being hit the hardest.

Africa is experiencing the most severe water crises in the world. In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, the severe drought has already affected at least 36.1 million people, displaced more than 1.3 million, and put at least 21 million at high levels of acute food insecurity. Wildlife is also suffering from water scarcity. Droughts have killed thousands of people from the animal kingdom, including elephants and the endangered Grevy’s zebra, in Kenya’s wildlife reserves. A similar desperate situation exists in Madagascar. Extreme droughts have dried up wells and water sources, with villagers having to walk for hours to get murky water from almost dried-up rivers.

Besides droughts and water depletion from climate change, we have overused water resources for years, mostly in the animal-people livestock industry. Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) says that we all need to take action to save our planet’s water before it’s too late. “We use 3,800 cubic kilometers of fresh water every year. But all the world’s rivers combined together is only 2,120 cubic kilometers. My God! We overspent our income. […] And then even then, from 2090 to 2099, even the Arctic, I see here, this is almost the North Pole area, this begins to have also some drought. And the whole world is red. I wonder if our children’s children’s children will have enough water to drink, not to talk about giving to animal-people. If we don’t stop the greenhouse gas emissions due to animal-people products, and if we don’t stop the use of too much clean water for the animal-people livestock industry, then our children’s children’s children will probably die, die from thirst.”