The Many Images Of Water Scarcity

Collecting Water

A primary face of scarcity is that of manually collecting water.

Source - thewaterproject.org

Source - peakwater.org

Source - rainharvest.co.za

Source - meerkat21.wordpress.com

Implicit in these images is the scare of water being unclean i.e. contaminated in some horrible way - the implication being sickness, illness and disease that will hit the people drinking this water.

Water Collection Takes Effort

Source - watertanksystem.blogspot.com

Another set of images mainly show

Source - mx.noticias.yahoo.com

the effort being required and being spent in the collection of water

Source - geographyblog.eu

which, hopefully, is safe for drinking e.g. walking long distances; a community-intensive task, a one-man unbelievable option, etc. 

Too Many People At The Same Source

Source - australianrain.blogspot.com

Scource - worldpulse.com

Source - newindianexpress.com

Images that show very large number of people involved in gathering water for a singe source imply scarcity e.g. a multitude of people encircling a single source (a well or tanker) of water, or a long line of people, each waiting for her/his turn to fill up a container with water.

Empty Water Sources

Source - balramranasingh.blogspot.com

Source - rttc.org

Low levels of water in water reservoirs or empty containers imply scarcity.

Parched Landscapes

Source - worldwildlife.org

Source - insideclimatenews.org

Land that shows the signs of having dried up and becoming cracked.

Rivers of Freshwater in the air = The Water Internet for Everyone Everywhere?

Latest research by NOAA is clearly revealing that there are Rivers in the atmosphere in numbers and sizes, much like the rivers on land masses.
Rivers in the sky

River that caused Flooding on 16 Feb, 2004
Source - noaanews.noaa.gov

Rivers, whether in the sky or on a land ground mass, produce the same results:
- they cause floods
- they physically change their location over time
- the flow in them varies
- they contain safe drinking water (aka freshwater)
Differences between these rivers are significant:
- We cannot pollute rivers in the sky
- We don't currently know how to dam the rivers in the sky, but are learning how to extract freshwater from the sky rivers on a piecemeal basis.

River causing flood in UK in 2009
Source - newscientist.com

- Rivers on ground hold, carry and deliver liquid water, while rivers in the atmosphere transport water vapor.
Global Rivers in the Air

Two Major Flows of Water Vapor in the Air
Source - baynature.org

Air currents flow, generally speaking, on very standard and predictable paths.

The questions of our day: How can we extract the water vapor that the rivers in the air carry everywhere and hold in some places while discharging in others? Can we make the water laden atmosphere for our local water needs everywhere, what the wireless Internet has become for global communications?
Now, that's a goal worthy of us, in this 21st century!

A 2-Tablespoon Freshwater Tap every 12 feet!

Seeing IS Believing except when the subject is freshwater. We usually conclude that there is no water when we cannot spot any where we are looking.
Water in Air Is nearly all in Vapor Form

The moisture in the air is essentially in vapor form and our naked eyes cannot see any gas or vapor.
Clouds are visible to us because of the liquid water droplets that are dispersed in the air that makes up the cloud.
Fog is another example of us being able to see the moisture in air because some of this water exists in liquid form.
An Air-Moisture Map

Water Vapor in the Air Around Us
Source - wateronline.com

NOAA/ESPL have mapped the moisture in the air we breathe i.e. in the air at sea level.
The average water content of this air - the air all around us and the air we breathe - varies from a low of approx 2.4 grams per cubic meter to a high of approx. 24 grams per cubic meter. The maximum amount can even exceed 26 grams per cubic meter but this concentration exists in only a very few places.
Water Amounts in Air

Tablespoon of water
Source - theguardian.com

Using the conversion (1 cubic centimeter (cc) of water weighs 1 gram) the moisture in 1 cubic meter of air varies from approx one-sixth of a tablespoon to over One-and-a-half tablespoons.
Thus, approx. 16 cubic meters (565 cubic feet) of air contain a cup (16 teaspoons) of water. Or, the air in an average sized room 8.5 feet high, 12 feet wide and 12 feet long contains a bit more than 2 tablespoons of safe water! 

All that remains to be accomplished is to capture this water for local use. Isn't this a challenge worth overcoming?

Why FreshWater? Because Our Body Cannot Store Water!

We simply must drink water and water alone
Source - wrd.org

We all know so well the unique feeling of satisfaction that overwhelms us after drinking a glass that contains only water.
This need to drink 'only water' is a need that is not completely met by the water our body successfully extracts from any other source, even each breath we take or from every food we eat.
Homeostasis - Water as Carrier
Homeostasis is our name for the balance that the human body must maintain (within a fairly narrow range) of many resources - nutrients, minerals and a long list of chemical compounds, including water - for each cell in our body to function as it is supposed to.

Water Homeostasis
Source - bbc.co.uk

Anything we do, even breathe a single breath changes the balance of one or more of these resources in the body.
Restoring the balance by redistributing available supplies of the resource in the body, is the job of our organs and bloodstream.
The transportation vehicle for redistributing the unbalanced resource falls on water.
The water in our body in, thus, simply in continuous motion. Maybe, that's why our body consists (around 65%) of water!
Water Storage in Living Bodies

Camel: Ship of the desert
Source - npr.org

It has been incorrectly assumed that camels have humps because the humps store water supplies. In fact, the humps contain fat and no unusual deposits of just water.
The camel has the ability to drink water in huge amounts (30 liters in 15 minutes, by some estimates) and the ability to increase the water circulating in its bloodstream and the ability to hold water for a longer time than humans can, in their stomachs.

Birds fly long distances without drinking
Source - telegraph.co.uk 

A camel's homeostasis system allows a lot more time, than in a human, to excrete excess water from the camel's body.
Many birds migrate regularly over very large distances and it was assumed that they had a unique ability to reduce their water replenishment need.
Recent research has shown, however, that a bird's need does not change by the distance it travels, but bird's have the ability to literally 'eat' their own organs by extracting the water contained in organs to meet their replenishment need.
Once they get a drink of just water, their organs grow back to a normal size.

Healthy Blood Cells
Source - abpischools.org.uk

Impact or Water Scarcity on Cells

Unhealthy Blood Cells
Source - abpischools.org.uk 

Our bloodstream contains a large amount of water.
If the water in the bloodstream reduces enough, each healthy blood cell starts leeching water to the bloodstream and starts functioning not as the body expects it to. Our health deteriorates.
Occasionally, the unbalance of water in our bodies gets to such an extent that the body prompts the sensation of "thirst" that we can only satisfy by drinking a glass, or more, containing only water.
Relative Approximate Intakes of Water
(Source - http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au)

• Infants  0–12 months   – 0.8 liters per day

• children 1–  3 years      – 1.0 liters per day
• children 4–  8 years      – 1.2 liters per day

• girls      9–13 years      – 1.4 liters per day
• girls      14–18 years    – 1.6 liters per day

• boys     9–13 years      – 1.6 liters per day
• boys     14–18 years    – 1.9 liters per day
• women  over 18 years  – 2.1 liters per day
• men      over 18 years  – 2.6 liters per day