Assignment

Freshwater issues

Freshwater is limited and fundamental resource, integral to life. But this resource is extremely scarce and it is wasted and abused globally. The total volume of the earth’s water is about 1.5 billion cubic kilometres, but 95.3% of this total is salt water and 2.7% is freshwater .freshwater include a total amount of 35 million cubic kilometres. About 77.2% of freshwater is frozen. The remaining 22.8% of freshwater, 22.4% is found in deep underground aquifers.

The southern Africa n region has an uneven distribution of water resources, it is severely limited, because of the extreme fluctuations which are caused by climate changes. The region is likely suffering from the recurrent droughts, and exposure to high temperatures ranges causing rapid evaporation of water. The demand for water from agriculture, industry and domestic use can mean that a large agricultural industry can receive its share, while small landholders receive very little. This influence on water availability can lead to food insecurity

Other factors that contribute to water scarcity are population growth , and water pollution such pressure for use frequently affect water quality , in other words in some cases water may be available , but not enough for domestic use.

Southern African countries share 15 river basins, these river basins are managed by 12 river basins, of which four are the major river basins they are, the Zambezi river basin, the Orange River basin, the Okavango river basin and the Limpopo river basin.

Water demand has traditionally been met by the building of large dams, and reservoirs. The countries which have limited sources of water can generally import water from other countries through inter-basin transfer. For example the Lesotho highland water scheme draws water from the source of the Orange River and transfer it to the Vaal river basin.