water importance

Though water is a necessity for Human Sphere life, many do not treat it like a commodity. However, in fact, anything that is affected by demand and supply is a commodity. Thus, with water being a commodity, we shall now explore 1 of the 2 sides for the demand and supply equation: the growing demand for water.

From history till today, the world population has been growing and this demographic trend will push up the demand for water since all humans have to use water for survival. This will be especially true for countries in Africa where the problem of overpopulation is rampant.

To add on, as the world population grows, there will be more human resources countries can develop. With an increased utilization of resources, GDP per capita will rise and people will have more income to purchase goods and services. Among these goods will be meat which has seen rising demand with increased industrialization.

The increase in meat demand will be important in the growth of demand for water given that meat requires 10 times more water than agricultural products. This is because animals need to drink and water is also needed to grow crops they eat. With such an increase in water-intensive activities, demand for water will rise significantly.

Also, a rise in the world's population will increase demand for energy, placing a strain on supply of commodities like oil. Because of this, countries like Canada may be forced to extract oil from sources like tar sand and shale to match the demand.

As a side note, extracting oil from tar sands require 4 to 5 times more water than that for normal oil. Similarly, deriving oil from shale requires 2.1 to 5.2 times more water. Thus, as remaining oil supplies show uncertainty and decline, desperate measures may have to be implemented and extracting oil from such sources will have to occur on a large scale. This will greatly increase global demand for water.