Water: The New Oil
Freshwater is extremely vital and utterly indispensable to human life on earth. The increasing demand for water caused a competition that holds the power to contribute to many forms of social unrest and geo-political conflicts between nations. In another words, one of the most significant natural resource challenges of our time is freshwater scarcity and ecosystem depletion. Solomon starts the chapter by introducing the main problem and highlighting the seriousness of freshwater scarcity by stating that freshwater scarcity is considered as one of the most defining fulcrums of world politics and human civilization since it poses an enormous threat to global health and security.
Freshwater has the ability to provide water for drinking, industry, personal hygiene and agriculture. Therefore, water is rarely substitutable and given water’s limited quantity and high demand, one can grasp the fact that there isn’t enough water to satisfy the demand of humankind. In Water, Solomon claims that water is somewhat the new oil as its overtaking oil as the world’s scarcest critical natural resources. However, Solomon believes that water is more that ‘the new oil’, mainly because oil is substitutable but water on the other hand is irreplaceable by any other substances.
There is no doubt that the world is already dealing with the consequences of the overuse and mismanagement of water. However, with the growing population, and the fact that in the over the past two centuries, freshwater usage has grown two times faster than population, freshwater scarcity is shaping the destinies of societies and the world order of the 21stcentury. As Solomon said, this new age is being characterized by acute disparities in water wealth, chronic insufficiencies, and deteriorating environmental sustainability across many of the most heavily populated parts of the planet.
Many past civilizations have managed to sustain water by using the technologies and organization methods of their time which lead to many thriving civilizations. However, many other civilizations couldn’t. The distribution of water supply varies seasonally and regionally. The amount of water in the world is fixed. The vast majority of the world’s water is in the ocean. But there is less than 3% of freshwater in our planet (most of that is contained in glaciers and ice sheets). Therefore, despite the fact that globally, there is enough of freshwater to meet the demands, freshwater is unevenly distributed across regions and seasons.
The aim of addressing this global health and security issue is for the humankind to pursue an alternative approach of using freshwater. An approach that’s highly dependable o the usage of existing solutions. However, such alternative approach will lead to the formation of new politics that are dependent on the size of the population and the available water resources in the region. There is a direct relationship between the amount of available water resources in a region and a region’s economic power.
Water scarcity forms a division between freshwater haves and have-nots. This division impacts the political, economic, and the social aspects of the century. One of the most important factors that determine water scarcity is the geographical location of a region. A Country’s geographical location indicates whether it’s located near water surfaces or not. If a country is near a water surface, then it’s considered a freshwater have and vice versa. Countries who have more access to water surfaces are classified under developing countries. Therefore, when a country is classified under a developing country, it means that the country has a good amount of water which contribute to boosting the economy of the country due to the many process that are connected to water ranging from agriculture to industry. With economic power comes political power. Therefore, when a developing country manages to sustain and control its water resources, it gains an economic power as well as political power. Furthermore, countries who are not located near water surfaces are classified under the have-nots and considered to be undeveloped countries. Such countries go though many global health and security challenges and obstacles.
Noof Almansoori
Water Final Project 