Water Consumption
This week, we discussed the politics and implications of water usage in the MENA region. Water is an essential source for every state and person. Currently, the future of water inventory within MENA is not promising. Many states are using significantly more water than they are consuming, and this issue will only get worse in the future.
I used two websites (watercalculator.org and waterfootprint.org) to calculate my water usage. After answering a slew of questions about my water consumption on watercalculator.org, my total gallons per day is estimated to be 1,599. It is important to note that I answered the questions based on my current living habits at Dickinson, not based on my household at home.
The United States average gallon used per day is 1,599. Comparing my numbers to the U.S average, I do fall below. This may be because the website calculates water based on household size. My household size at college is one, which may have caused my numbers to be smaller.
The website waterfootpring.org measures your water using the unit meters cubed and obtains an estimation based on your gender, dietary habits, and how much of the family income is consumed by you. My final estimation was 1369.1 meters cubed. The global average is 1243 meters cubed. I do fall above the global average, but I believe that to make sense as I live in the United States in Pennsylvania, where water is plentiful. I am also a meat eater, which unfortunately increases my water consumption by a somewhat significant margin. If I did not eat meat, my water footprint estimation would go down to 1,118.6 meters cubed.
My sub-region specialization is the Euphrates region, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. None of my countries pass the United States in the liters of water used per capita. The U.S water footprint is 7,800 liters per day, whereas the state in my sub-region with the largest water footprint per capita, Syria, consumes 5,100 liters per day.
Water will become increasingly more important in MENA. Looking at my sub-region, I foresee Turkey and Iran increasingly relying on virtual water, that is exporting goods that require water. As Turkey and Iran are the wealthiest states in my sub-region, I believe they will survive a lack of water by importing virtual water and bolstering their current systems of acquiring water. Iran has direct access to the Caspian sea and Turkey has direct access to the Black and Mediterranean Seas. They will most likely increase investment and improve current processes like desalination, to compensate for water shortages. Although bolstering processes like desalination can harm the ecosystems of these seas. Turkey is well-integrated with the West (although decreasingly so) and will be able to rely on Western states, especially Europe to combat water shortages. Turkey also has immediate access to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, further increasing its water supply. Although Euphrates and Tigris are sensitive ecosystems, which limits the ability to extract water
As for Iraq and Syria, it will be more challenging for these states to combat any future water crisis. While Iraq does not have any available data, Syria consumes 5,800 liters of water per day. These two states are currently experiencing domestic political issues, which will prevent robust solutions to combat water shortages. Turkey and Iran are likely to aid the states in their water-acquiring endeavors, but Iraq and Syria will still most likely struggle more than Iran and Turkey. Neither Iraq nor Syria is not as internationally integrated as Turkey, which will hurt their ability to acquire things like virtual water.
Water is the most essential resource for a human, and therefore is essential for a state to have proper access to. With current environmental trends, water will become increasingly scarce in the MENA system, requiring the region to solve this issue quickly and effectively.
Sources:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ayseguel-Kibaroglu/publication/321655903/figure/fig1/AS:626163571494915@1526300437693/map-of-the-euphrates-tigris-river-basin-source-orkan-ozcan.png
This is not as in-depth of a comment as I would normally give, but I just thought that little disclaimer you made about this data being on your habits at school, rather than at home, really caught my eye. I am sure that living in such communal living spaces on a college campus, our water usage is lower as a result. I would be interested to see the difference in this assignment if each of us were to redo it but in terms of our at-home living habits.
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