Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Institute of Water Problems Viktor Danilov-Danilyan said that the shortage of fresh water in the world will increase over time for well-known reasons.
In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper, the scientist points out that there is nothing new in the recent “discovery” published by an international group of scientists about the insufficient amount of water in some lakes in the journal Science.
He says: “This study does not appear to be serious. Everything is simplified, and statistical calculations do not inspire confidence. There is nothing new in it. 35 years. The bottom line is that the amount of economically available water resources is decreasing.”
According to him, one of the most important reasons for this phenomenon is the increase in the amount of greenhouse gases: evaporation from the surface of lakes increases, which leads to an increase in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, in exchange for a decrease in the amount of water on Earth.
Secondly, many sources of fresh water are polluted, so that the costs of their purification significantly exceed the costs of desalination of sea water. Thirdly, the misuse of groundwater leads to the drying up of the rivers that feed from them. loss of many water sources. If the rivers dry up, the amount of water in the lakes into which they flow will decrease. There are many other reasons.”
The world notes that the world’s water consumption is gradually increasing, as a result of the increase in consumption in developing countries, as water is needed for the agricultural sector and various industries.
Source: Izvestia newspaper.
