Is Any Place FREE from Potential Safe Water Risk?

Water risks come in many forms and if "amount of safe water" is used as a measure, then too-much water (flood) is one extreme while too-little water (drought) is the other extreme. Other measures that define risk are quality, limitations imposed by nature or constraints imposed by a lack of water supply infrastructure.
Flood Risk

Water Risk - Flood Occurrence
Source - http://aqueduct.wri.org/atlas

World Resources Institute's AQUEDUCT Project has mapped the occurrence of floods in the 1985-2011 period. Some interesting observations:
- The Eastern half of the US has experienced many floods; Much of Western Australia has had to cope with floods; Floods seem to cover all of South Asia and the Middle East excluding countries that have predominantly desert landscapes; Mid and Eastern Africa have needed to cope with floods; etc.
Areas free of foods include:
- Mid and south-western US; Much of Canada; Northern regions of Russia and the Scandinavian states; Southern tip of Africa; Midsection of Australia; etc.
Drought Risk

Water Risk - Drought Severity
Source - http://aqueduct.wri.org/atlas

Another map from the AQUEDUCT Project displays drought locations during the 1985-2011 time period. Some conclusions: Australia's midsection and west experience drought; The US west coast and western states are drought prone; Northern and southern Africa have experienced drought frequently; Canada's midsection will see drought as will north and northeastern Russia; The Scandinavian areas free from floods have seeen many droughts; etc
Combining Risk of Flood and Drought
A most interesting and ominous conclusion surfaces when the two maps, flood history and drought history, are superimposed: there seem to be very very few areas where water, as drought or flood, does not pose a hazard to humanity and, also, nature:
- Much of Australia, the US, Africa, Europe, Russia, the Middle East. Canada, etc have been prone to risks from water, either as drought or as flood.

Safe water is a worldwide issue! Very very few of us will not face some form of water insecurity in the near future. We are all in the same boat where safe water is concerned!

Freshwater Shortage OR Crisis?

Whenever we talk and hear about freshwater and the future, our most frequently used phrase is 'freshwater crisis.' Less frequently used phrases include 'freshwater shortage' and 'freshwater thirst.'

The American Heritage Dictionary

Source - 123rf.com

This dictionary defines a 'crisis' as:

• a 'turning point' or 
• a 'crucial or decisive point or situation.'

It also calls a crisis 

• "an unstable condition in political, international and economic affairs in which an abrupt or decisive change is impending' and 
• 'a sudden change in the course of an acute disease either towards improvement or deterioration' and 
• 'the point in a story or drama at which hostile forces are in the most tense state of opposition.'

Crisis is about RISK and not about a BAD outcome

From the above descriptions, a crisis exists when a situation exhibits the following characteristics:

• An unstable state of affairs
• A decisive change is pending



Source - forbes.com

• Distinct possibility of a highly undesirable or a highly desirable outcome

Under these criteria, a crisis is not necessarily bad. 

The outcome of a crisis can also be a positive and good one.

The difference between calling the future situation with freshwater a 'crisis' and not a 'shortage' only implies that:

• Freshwater in the future is a situation characterized by a certain level of risk and uncertainty
• A necessarily 'bad' result is NOT being foretold

Depending on the risk and uncertainty, some will predict a 'freshwater crisis' while others will accept it as a 'freshwater shortage'