Worksheet 4.1 – Global Water Resources
From Textbook Living in the Environment Chapter 13 (pages 313-324)
Water Conflicts in the Middle East: A Preview of the Future?
1.
Which 3 river basins are the sources of most of the freshwater in the middle east?
2.
Which country depends on the Nile for more than 97% of its freshwater?
3.
Which upstream countries plan to divert more of the Nile for their own use?
4.
What options does Egypt face if the Nile gets diverted?
5.
Which four countries use the Jordan River?
6.
What does Israel warn could be the consequence if Syria goes through with its plans to dam and divert the Jordan River?
7.
Which countries share the Tigris and Euphrates River?
8.
How is Turkey proposing to increase its use of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
9.
How is Syria proposing to increase its use of the Euphrates River?
10. What is one possible response by Iraq?
Will We Have Enough Usable Water?
11. What percent of the earth’s water supply is available as liquid freshwater? _______
12. What are three ways in which we interfere with the water cycle?
13. What is the water table?
14. What is the connection between surface water and groundwater?
15. Worldwide we use ______ % of the freshwater we withdraw for agriculture, _______% for industry, and ______% for cities and
residences.
16. How many liters of water does it take to produce a small car? _______ What about a t-shirt? _______
17. What are the three rainiest cities in the United States?
18. According to Figure 13-4, which five states have the lowest annual precipitation and face the most acute water shortage?
19. In the arid and semi-arid areas of the western US, what percentage of water is used for irrigation?
20. According to figure 13-5, which six states have the highest likely conflict potential over water hotspots?
21. According to figure 13-6, which two continents have the highest stress on water resources?
22. By 2025, how many people in the world are projected to lack access to safe water?
23. What are three harmful environmental effects of drought?
24. What percentage of the world’s land area currently experiences drought?
25. Which parts of North America are predicted to experience long periods of extreme drought throughout the rest of the century?
26. How does production of biofuels affect water use?
27. Which two French companies are attempting to buy as much of the world’s water resources as possible?
28. What percentage of the US water supply do they aim to control?
29. What happened in Cochabamba Bolivia when the Bechtel Corporation raised water rates and seized the houses of people who
couldn’t pay their water bills?
30. What are two potential problems with privatizing water systems?
Is Extracting Groundwater the Answer?
31. What percentage of the world’s people receive their drinking water from aquifers?
32. Why are water tables falling throughout the world?
33. How does Saudi Arabia get 70% of its drinking water?
34. In the United States, groundwater is being withdrawn _________-times faster than it is being replenished.
35. What is the world’s largest known aquifer? _______________________ . It provides about ______________ of all the
groundwater used in the United States.
36. Is the Ogallala aquifer considered a one-time or renewable resource?
37. According to figure 13-9, which six states appear to have the highest overdrafts of groundwater?
38. In the Texas-Oklahoma high plains, water is being depleted from the Ogallala aquifer at a rate that is ________-times higher
than the natural recharge rates.
39. The amount of irrigated land it Texas has decreased by ___________ percent in recent years due to depletion of aquifers.
40. What are three possible environmental effects of depleting aquifers?