Eng Draft 2.23 (Document with formatting)

Water is the most important requirement of life on our planet. We see this as we explore the universe in the search for life, we hunt for planets that carry water. Water is synonymous with life, as we are all composed of water, water blankets our planet and enables us to grow food, ship goods, and clean ourselves. As Nelson Mandella said, “Water is democracy” (). Water is of paramount importance to civil society, and yet, it’s an aspect that lays dormant in our minds, far detached from our daily lives as we turn on our taps to quench our thirst. This poses a question, where does our water come from? We all know to some extent that water comes from the ground, from groundwater wells that are pumped up to feed our showers and faucets, but a greater question is where does that water originate from? Most of the groundwater sources used in America (¬90%) originate from large aquifers that are being depleted faster than replenished (Flavelle). As one could imagine, this is a fundamental issue in the way we consume water, as the increasing scarcity of such a fundamental resource produces a profound humanitarian threat. In order to fully examine this threat, we need to deconstruct this issue by examining the background, scope, and nature of groundwater depletion.
To establish a foundational knowledge of groundwater depletion, we need to investigate the primary sources of groundwater for most Americans, namely being aquifers. Aquifers go through cycles of naturally driven recharge and depletion (largely based on seasonal differences in precipitation and evapotranspiration), and aquifers all unique in nature, although many of these nuances will be ignored for the sake of simplicity. There are three main factors to keep in mind, firstly is the fact that human intervention inherently upsets the natural balance of recharge and discharge through the utilization and destruction of these ecological systems. This stems from consumption of water for agricultural reasons, “urban development, deforestation, and draining of wetlands” (I don’t know how to cite this but it’s the circular article), all of which impede aquifer recharge. Secondly is the fact that these natural aquifers are not bound by human made borders, and often span across numerous countries as is the case with the Arabian aquifer system that spans across much of the middle east. As one could imagine, a single water source spanning across an arid desert region notorious for intergenerational conflicts pose geopolitical stability concerns, an idea explored later in the paper. Lastly, is the fact that dependence on these aquifers is only increasing globally. This trend follows a logical path, as the struggles for potable drinking water lessened, increasingly dense urbanized areas formed, furthering the dependence on the aquifers, and subsequently consolidating the demand to localized groundwater systems that are ill-equipped for such dependencies (Stuckenberg). Simply put, societies grow around freshwater sources, a fact we observe with the inhabitation of the fertile crescent, which facilitated the creation of Earths earliest societies.
Logically, this conditionality when absent produces considerable consequences. To fully explain these, we must quantify the types of aquifers commonly found, namely being confined, and unconfined aquifers. Unconfined aquifers are shallow aquifers that see the cyclical processes of replenishments and drainage, while confined aquifers lay further underground and are much less sustainable. Pumping groundwater from confined aquifers is comparable with drilling oil, which is to say confined aquifers are a finite, essentially non-renewable resource that are not replenished (Konikow). Unconfined aquifers also suffer from excess pumping, as pumping from the surface most groundwater source leaves a “residual with inferior water quality”, (Konikow) contaminating the remaining groundwater (circular article I still don’t know how to cite). Furthermore, the excess pumping of both types of aquifer result in a “cone of depression”, where the pressure difference created by the sudden removal of water creates a “v” shaped recess of water (Water Science School). This cone of depression leads to numerous issues, like the lowering of the overall water level in a geographic area (Figure 1), or the complete drainage of an aquifer.
Due to the complex and wide spanning nature of the issue, a more localized approach is useful for further analysis. Specifically, how cultural norms have materialized and contributed to the overutilization of the aquifers so much of the American population is reliant on. The scale in which populations are reliant on groundwater varies, but roughly 38% Americans utilize groundwater as their main source of water, a figure that grows to roughly 50% globally (The Nature Conservancy). And yet, drinking is not the primary consumer of groundwater. A U.S. Geological Survey concluded in 2015 that 70% of domestic groundwater withdrawals were utilized for irrigation, meaning agriculture was the primary driver behind this depletion (United States Geological Survey). This makes sense, as American diets in recent history have revolved around increasingly water intensive products , seeing a steep uptick in poultry demands (Figure 2). This trend is visible by examining feed-crops that our new diets are reliant on, with acreage of corn (in which ~50% goes to animal feed) growing sixfold between 1964 – 2017, and soybean (in which ~75–85% goes to animal feed) growing eightfold in the same period (Flavelle). This is causing catastrophic consequences, draining aquifers to a significant extent, with “79 percent” of monitored wells hitting record lows since 2013 (Flavelle). This issue is worsened in ecologically arid areas like Arkansas, whose aquifer is being depleted at a rate two times of replenishment, causing some aquifers to drop below 10% capacity (Flavelle, Rojanasakul). If these trends continue, the American Midwest may run out of water, threatened the United States status as a food superpower. The data tells a story of how the American diet, and the subsequent drainage of aquifers threatens future domestic food production, and may result in a internal humanitarian crisis.
The importance of reliable freshwater cannot be understated, as without this access, civilized society cannot form. This importance is relayed by Daniel R. Coats, the director of the United States National Intelligence Office who emphasizes the risk of potential political upheaval due to increasing “water scarcity”, alongside a lack of bilateral water sharing agreements (Coats, 17). This issue is arising globally in different hotspots, from North Africa, South and Central Asia, North China, Australia to North America, water scarcity is becoming an increasingly realized problem. Further issues arise when due diligence is delayed, as is purportedly the case in the Middle East, with the Arabian aquifer providing much of the middle east and north Africa with freshwater being drained at twice the per capita rate as the U.S. or Australia (Stuckenberg). As mentioned, this provides a national security concern, as substantial reform and implementation of sustainable practices are forgone, the chance and potency of thirst-driven political unrest only increases (World Bank).
The effects on inaction in regard to sustainable water-management practices involving aquifers are profound, and it would be inexcusable to ignore this problem, as its scope and consequences are too all encompassing. While the outlook does look grim, this is an evolving field of academia that has seen large strides in recent years, with the design and creation of MAR (Managed Aquifer Recharge) facilities. These facilities attempt to “maximize use and storage of purified wastewater” by recharging preexisting aquifers with recycled water (Centre for Law, Energy, and the Environment UC Berkeley School of Law). Another method that has predated MAR facilities is desalination. Desalination involves taking salt water and purifying for use, but this process has undergone recent scrutiny, as some attribute the recent increase in salinity in the Persian Gulf as a biproduct of these desalination facilities (Financial Tribune). It is important to note, that this is a contested idea as the cause has also been attributed to increasing temperatures, causing greater evaporation, leading to the salinity increases . The major barrier for adoption however is cost, as desalination is an energy intense process that may produce other ecological side effects if integrated into preexisting fossil fuel driven power grids. These solutions will continue to see progress and integration to reduce reliance on aquifers, but the speed and scope to which they will do so may leave hundreds of millions more people with inadequate access to ground water. In order to avoid this fate, significant efforts have to be made to increase sustainability and decrease reliance on these struggling groundwater systems.