Water Availability in Africa

By:Unknown
Summary
There is very little water availability in Africa due to global warming. The increase in weather is drying up water sources and making it unavailable to the people who rely on it. Efforts to provide a reliable water source have been comprimised due to the rapid increase in population and problems with land use such as erosion. Only the tropical zones in central Africa have an abundant water source. Sharma et al says "Eight countries were suffering from water stress or scarcity; this situation is getting worse as a consequence of rapid growth, expanding urbanization, and increased economic development." In 2000, 300 million people could not get clean water. In 2025, about 600 million people will not be able to get clean water. This picture represents how much the water availability has decreased and will decrease over the course of thirty five years.
Personal Opinion
I think that the african government should take more responsibility for the water scarcity. We always hear how America is helping other countries, supplying them with filters and giving them money to build wells etc. The reason for this problem is mainly population growth. They should but a limit on how many offspring can be produced. Another idea that would help is supplying water pumps and wells every so many miles.
Questions
How do you feel about the decrease in water availability?

What are some ways that these people can get water more easily?

Who do think is responsiblefor this?

Sorry, NY Times: GMOs still won't save the world

By Anna Lappe

August 20, 2011

Grist

Link to Article

Summary:

GMOs, genetically modified organisms, are starting to become less favorited because of the lack of benefits it provides compared to regular, old farming style. These GMOs, if anything, cause issues because it threatens biodiversity in areas and has not even proven its worth. Regular farming however can improve the environment, one of those benefits being protecting watersheds, which in turn reduces crops water needs by thirty percent! Though the efforts in Kenya to create a "genetically engineered pesticide resistant sweet potato" failed miserably, some researchers in Uganda were able to complete the task without manipulating the sweet potatoes; rather they simply bred the different potatoes until they reached their goal through regular farming. It has also been found to help the production of agriculture and decrease the use of pesticide tremendously in countries of West Africa. Farmers also seem to be able to create communities amongst themselves and increased their wealth.

Picture:

Shown below is a picture of a watershed. You can see how with watersheds, much more water gets access into the soil, thus reducing the amount of water requirements for plants as said before.

Opinion/Reflection:

Hm... look at us humans. Forcing things to work the way we want them to through means of unnatural ways. It seems pretty clear that GMOs are not a very good idea in the agriculture industry and it should be removed and replaced with normal farming. I remember back in elementary school at Simmons, there were a couple of visits down to the Jarret Nature Center and there was the shed (which is still there) and we were taught what watersheds were (Though at the time I honestly did not know what it was still and I actually thought it had something to do with the shed. The tributary just happened to be next to it (small though).) and now, after reading this article, I have been enlightened on their impact of plant growth and the importance of their conservation. The fact that watersheds help reduce the water needs of plants (as in, compared to manuel labor to water them) by thirty percent makes it even more incredible and important.

Question(s):

1) What is your opinion of GMOs? (Would you rather keep them or try and result to regular farming considering the benefits?)

2) Why do you think we use GMOs rather than figuring things out conventionally?

3) What are other things we can do to try and preserve watersheds?

4) After considering the benefits of conventional farming, what are the negatives to doing so?