China is faced with a daunting food challenge that has been getting worse as the population expands.  The nation posseses only 7% of global arable land, but must feed 22% of the world’s people.  Its per capita water supplies are only 25% of the world’s average levels.  China’s northern regions hold 18% of total water supplies and 65% of the nation’s arable land, but the climate in those areas has become drier over the years.

By the end of 2015, China’s population is expected to reach 1.39 billion, requiring a 4 million ton increase in annual grain supply over the next decade, but according to the Nature article, water limitations may reduce rice yields by 4 to 14%, wheat by 2 to 20% and corn by 0 to 23% by the middle of this century.

China’s agriculture minister acknowledges the nation faces a “formidable task” in meeting food demand in the face of growing resource scarcity.

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Changing climate and rainfall patterns have hit many of the world’s agricultural production regions hard, especially in regions of Africa and Asia.  Despite advances in irrigation technology, it is estimated that 66% of Asian agriculture is dependent on rainfall, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, that percentage is as high as 94%.

Experts are urging policy makers to help farmers improve storage systems and develop better water management skills.  “For millions of people dependent on rain-fed agriculture, reliable access to water can make all the difference between chronic hunger and steady progress toward food security,” said hydrologist Matthew McCartney.  “Just as modern consumers diversify their financial holdings to reduce risk, smallholder farmers need a wide array of ‘water accounts’ to provide a buffer against climate change impacts.”

The report warns against over-dependence on one source of water, and encourages governments in vulnerable regions to consider storage solutions big and small, from large-scale dams to local ponds, tanks and reservoirs.  “Even small amounts of stored water, by enabling crops and livestock to survive dry periods, can produce large gains in agricultural productivity and in the wellbeing of rural people,” said McCartney.

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Key Facts from the IEEE Spectrum Special Report on Water vs. Energy:

• By the year 2030, the 8 billion people living on Earth will demand 45% more water than today.  Annual water shortfall may be as high as 2,700 billion cubic meters
• Vast quantities of water are need for electricity generation.  Over 500 billion liters of freshwater travel through power plants in the U.S. everyday – twice what flows in the Nile River.  39% of all withdrawn freshwater in the U.S. goes to cool thermoelectric power plants
• IT activity and data storage are heavy energy users, and therefore also dependent upon water.  For example, it requires 150,000 liters of water to run the 300 million daily Google searches worldwide

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The drought in China’s industrial north is reaching dangerous levels – the area is home to 44% of the population, but only 14% of the water.  As industrial production increases, Chinese power plants in the north will need 82 million ML of water each year by 2030.

This project will transport 44.8 million megaliters of water every year through a complex, three-pronged plan which consists of an eastern, western and a central route.  Encompassing nearly 1800 km of pipelines, 23 pumping stations, up to 7 dams and 2 giant tunnels beneath the Yellow River, the project will drain one river to fill another and pump water flow against gravity.

Although officials say this project may “ease the water shortage in the north” in the short term, conservation and new efficiency measures are the true long-term measures to solve China’s water woes.

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British consultancy group Maplecroft crafted a “water security risk index” of 165 nations around the world based on criteria such as access to drinking water, per capita demand and dependence on water from rivers which first travel through other neighboring nations.

The survey showed primarily African and Asian nations had the most vulnerable supplies, with Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan, Niger and Iraq leading the list of “riskiest nations.”

However, poor countries are not the only ones facing increased water risk, noted Anna Moss, an author of the study.  Regions of the United States and Australia are also at high risk levels., as are European countries like Bulgaria, Belgium and Spain.

On the other end of the spectrum, the most secure water supplies can be found in Iceland, Norway and New Zealand.

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According to a recent report from Global Data, total hydropower capacity has increased from 695.8 GW in 2001 to 888.8 GW in 2009 – a CAGR of 3.1%. This dramatic increase resulted mainly from new Chinese installations, many of which came online in 2004.  Favorable government subsidies have also allowed the hydro sector to continue its growth.

Although fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy production worldwide, over 60 nations now rely on hydropower to satisfy 50% or more of their domestic energy needs.

Global Data predicts installations of small hydro plants will grow to 201GW by 2020, and predicts smaller installations will be an important source of growth for the industry.

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The Group projects that utilizing just one third of the available wind and tidal resources off the UK coast could eventually transform the nation from a net importer to a net exporter of electricity by 2050.  At the same time, deploying these resources would result in a savings of 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions and create infrastructure with a positive net present value of £35 billion.

“We have long been saying that the North Sea will become the Saudi Arabia of wind energy,” says Peter Madigan, head of offshore renewables at industry advocacy body RenewableUK.

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The amount of water used to produce food and goods imported by developed countries is worsening water shortages in the developing world, a report says.

The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside its borders.

The Engineering the Future alliance of professional engineering bodies says this is unsustainable, given population growth and climate change.

It says countries such as the UK must help poorer nations curb water use.

“We must take account of how our water footprint is impacting on the rest of the world,” said Professor Roger Falconer, director of the Hydro-Environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University and a member of the report’s steering committee.

“If we are to prevent the ‘perfect storm’, urgent action is necessary.”

The term perfect storm was used last year by the UK government’s chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, to describe future shortages of energy, food and water.

Forecasts suggest that when the world’s population soars beyond 8bn in 20 years time, the global demand for food and energy will jump by 50%, with the need for fresh water rising by 30%.

But developing countries are already using significant proportions of their water to grow food and produce goods for consumption in the West, the report says.

“The burgeoning demand from developed countries is putting severe pressure on areas that are already short of water,” said Professor Peter Guthrie, head of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Cambridge University, who chaired the steering group.

“If the water crisis becomes critical, it will pose a serious threat to the UK’s future development because of the impact it would have on our access to vital resources.”

Key to the report is the concept of “embedded water” – the water used to grow food and make things.

Embedded in a pint of beer, for example, is about 130 pints (74 litres) of water – the total amount needed to grow the ingredients and run all the processes that make the pint of beer.

A cup of coffee embeds about 140 litres (246 pints) of water, a cotton T-shirt about 2,000 litres, and a kilogram of steak 15,000 litres.

The average UK consumer uses about 150 litres per day, the size of a large bath.

Ten times as much is embedded in the British-made goods bought by the average UK consumer; but that represents only about one-third of the total water embedded in all the average consumer’s food and goods, with the remainder coming from imports.

The UK is not unique in this – the same pattern is seen in most developed countries.

The engineering institutions say it means nations such as the UK have a duty to help curb water use in the developing world, where about one billion people already do not have sufficient access to clean drinking water.

UK-funded aid projects should have water conservation as a central tenet, the report recommends, while companies should examine their supply chains and reduce the water used in them.

This could lead to difficult questions being asked, such as whether it is right for the UK to import beans and flowers from water-stressed countries such as Kenya.

While growing crops such as these uses water, selling them brings foreign exchange into poor nations.

In the West, the report suggests, concerns over water could eventually lead to goods carrying a label denoting their embedded water content, in the same way as electrical goods now sport information about their energy consumption.

The Engineering the Future alliance includes the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) and the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

Last week’s incident left eleven workers missing and presumed dead,  and broke open a deep-sea pipe, which is currently leaking an estimated 5,000 barrels a day into the ocean.  Coordinated efforts from the U.S. Coast Guard and BP – which as leaser of the rig is responsible for all clean-up costs – have not succeeded in containing the oil slick.  Today’s reports indicate that strong winds are pushing the oil towards the shoreline, which is home to a variety of sensitive ecosystems and species that would all be in danger if the oil were to reach land.

The consequences of this major spill could spell disaster for President Obama’s proposal to expand offshore drilling in the United States, which he was offering as a way to encourage bipartisan support for a more far-reaching climate bill.  The President has ceased issuing new offshore drilling leases until a deeper investigation into this explosion is conducted.

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Oceans are one of the world’s largest “carbon sinks,” storing about one-third of all CO2 emissions.  However, when CO2 is stored in the ocean, it reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid.  Unless emissions of carbon dioxide are limited, scientists warn that the ocean will grow more and more acidic.  Coral reefs and marine life are especially sensitive to the pH balance of the ocean, and increased acidification could have catastrophic consequences, such as the creation of ocean “dead zones” devoid of sea life.

The National Research Council’s data shows ocean acidity has increased 0.1 points (out of a 14 point pH scale).  This data indicates that ocean chemistry has changed more since the Industrial Revolution than at any other point over the last 800,000 years.

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