A problem that I have read about in this unit is water as a resource and its shortages. Fresh water scarcity is already posing major problems for more than a billion people around the world, mostly in developing countries.
With human population expected to balloon another 50 percent by 2050, resource managers are increasing looking to alternative scenarios for the shortages of fresh water. Desalination is a process where ocean water is highly pressurized and pushed through tiny membrane filters and distilled into drinking water. This is seen as the most promising solution to the problem of water shortages but it has a very high economic cost. According to the non-profit Food and Water Watch, desalinated ocean water is the most expensive form of fresh water. This solution is a big hurdle to jump in poor countries as well, where limited funds are already stretched too thin. Despite the cost, desalination are becoming more common, mostly in the Middle East and Caribbean and analysts expect the worldwide market to grow significantly over the coming decades.…show more content… The City of Kelowna water utility and the Water Smart program strive to reduce peak damage. Peak demand generally occurs at the end of July and beginning of August. The water distribution system has to be sized to meet this demand even though it occurs for only a few weeks in the summer. Since the introduction of water meters in 1996 and a user-pay water rate in 1998, Kelowna residents have reduced per capita water use by over 20 per cent. The 2007 Water Sustainability Action Plan calls for a further 15 per cent reduction by