This week ’s jaw - put down newsworthiness that amassive aquifer has been discovered beneath Kenyaconjured up all kind of visions of the desert instantly greening like a Chia Pet . But it ’s not as easy as digging a well — the aquifer unfold up a whole other exercise set of political and environmental issues that face the African nation .
https://gizmodo.com/scientists-have-found-a-huge-underground-water-reserve-1296862271
news program of the aquifer was so noted because it ’s estimated that 40 percent of Kenyans presently have no admission to clean water . Although the amount of water in the aquifer may be enough to meet the country ’s water needs for 70 years , deliver it to that 40 percent will require extensive climb to base and technology , not to mention monitor the environmental impact so the aquifer is n’t exploited . And that ’s where other rural area confront water shortfall are currently having problems .
In the U.S. we once face a similar challenge . The Great Plains were about as productive as the Sahara until settlers discovered the Ogallala Aquifer ( or High Plains Aquifer ) . The shallow underground pee reserve is one of the with child aquifers in the world , continue 175,000 square miles from South Dakota to Texas . Cities bounce up in its footmark with the promise of ample urine , but terrible drouth coupled with poor farming techniques lead in the devastation of the Dust Bowl . It was only when core - pivot irrigation was introduce in 1948 — imprinting those dark-green Pac - Mans on the landscape painting everywhere — that residents were capable to effectively tap and employ the slap-up amounts of water stored beneath their feet , transform the realm into one of the most fertile agrarian zones in the country .
But aquifers are not bottomless outflow of juvenility for increasingly subject metropolises . The advances in irrigation which allowed farmer to get at the aquifer is now fellate it wry . aquifer can become naturally fill again , but not at the pace we ’re consuming water . unexampled report this year estimate that the Ogallalacould be 70 percent depleted by 2060 .
China is also insure aDust Bowl - type effectin the north part of its commonwealth , with desertification occurring due to overfarming and changing weather traffic pattern . Their solution is the challenging South - North Water Diversion Project whichstarted test sooner this summer . Like a Great Wall for water , the project plans to pump about six trillion gallons per class from the Yangtze River in the south to the drier , more extremely populated area of the Second Earl of Guilford , admit Beijing , where the universe just topped 20 million . The serial of tunnels and canals will take 50 more years to complete at a total price of $ 62 billion plus thedisplacement of over 350,000 people . And not even that will be enough fresh weewee for the region , so Beijing is also design an enlargement for itsmassive desalination plant .
Perhaps the most noted ( or notorious ) example of moving water to fuel a metropolis , the Los Angeles Aqueduct , turns 100 this year . The order for the water supply came straight from the top : President Theodore Rooseveltmandatedthat the piddle of the Owens Valley be divert to Los Angeles in the name of forward motion , where it would do the “ greatest good for the greatest bit . ” This was not the impression of the local farmers who watch their water supply vaporise and executed attacks on the infrastructure known as the California Water Wars ( a narration familiar to anyone who ’s see Chinatown ) . In recent age the dry - lakebed - formerly - be intimate - as - Owens Lake has become such an environmental hazard that L.A. ’s Department of Water and Power has to usesprinklers ( ! ! ! ) to ensure the toxic detritus .
The offspring contract stickier when it crosses borders . The U.S. is hangdog of draw so much weewee off the Colorado River that itno longer flow into the Gulf of California . Now our hungriness for brisk weewee has international logical implication , alter the the environmental and economical keep of Mexico .
To debar these kinds of struggle , UNESCO , which facilitated the discovery of this Kenyan aquifer , has been adding to itsatlas of hush-hush water(above ) for more than ten . In addition to employing new engineering science to find weewee , they ’ve also been mapping over 270 “ transboundary ” sources , meaning origin that span political border and could be a source of potential engagement . Some of the most arid regions on the planet are also some of the most unstable , and the find of more aquifer will require a different level of diplomatical negotiations , like a famous 1995 concord whichmediates the groundwater resources shared by Israel and Palestine .
By 2025 , 1.8 billion people will be facing water scarcity , and two - thirds of the planet ’s population will be water - accent , according to theUN ’s statistics on water and cities . Just looking at those fact makes it feel as if the predicted “ water wars ” are at hand . Water insurance expert Mark Zeitoun may haveexplained it bestwhen frame up the value of aquifers in today ’s quick commute world : “ Typically they are seen in much the same way as adamant mines . ”
[ Top figure of speech : UNESCO . Other source : National Geographic , NASA , New Scientist , New York Times , Places Journal , Water and Power ]
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