Water Stress
The concept of water stress is relatively simple: According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, it applies to situations where there is not enough water for all uses, whether agricultural, industrial or domestic. Defining thresholds for stress in terms of available water per capita is more complex, however, entailing assumptions about water use and its efficiency. Nevertheless, it has been proposed that when annual per capita renewable freshwater availability is less than 1,700 cubic meters, countries begin to experience periodic or regular water stress. Below 1,000 cubic meters, water scarcity begins to hamper economic development and human health and well-being.
Read more about this topic: Water Resources
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or stress:
“Thales claimed that everything was water. He also put wine into water to sterilize it. Did he really believe he was putting water into water to sterilize it? Parmenides, like most Greeks, knew that wine was not water. But while lifting a glass of wine to his lips, he denied that motion was possible. Did he really believe that the glass was not moving when he lifted it?”
—Avrum Stroll (b. 1921)
“In the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are not faults! Now we are taught from infancy that we must rise or fall upon our own merits; that vigilance wins success, and incapacity means ruin.”
—Agnes Repplier (1858–1950)