Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems

1. Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems Chapter 3

2. Freshwater Ecosystem • Earth’s hydrological system is a huge asset that is being destroyed by human actions. • Rivers, lakes , and other freshwater sources work with forests, grasslands, and other landscapes to provide goods and services of great importance to human society. • More than 90% of the world’s irrigation, industrial, and household water supplies comes from rivers, lakes, and aquifers. • Healthy rivers are vital for all life.

3. Assessing the Damage • Overstressed and deteriorating ecosystems take many forms such as; disappearing species, decimated fish populations, falling water tables, altered river flows, shrinking lakes, diminishing wetlands, declining water quality, and pollution introduced “dead zones”. • All of these are getting worse. • The redirection of rivers causes the shrinkage of seas. • The spawning habitats for fish and shrimp are shrinking causing a decline in the fish and shrimp.

4. Healthy Watersheds for Safe Drinking Water • Forests and wetlands are natures way of providing high-quality water at a lower cost. • Many cities have begun protecting their watersheds, rather than building expensive water filtration systems. • Watersheds are more efficient. • Urban cities waste 20-50% of their usable water in leaks. • Cities who have saved their watersheds and avoided building water purification systems, have saved their people millions of dollars.

5. Food Security with Ecosystem Security • Already as much as 10% of global food production depends on the over pumping of ground water and closer to 25% in India. • The hydrological deficits create a bubble in food economy and is bound to burst. • Where will the additional water come from to support the growth of future food production? • Expected growth of 1.7 billion diets by 2030 • The production of rice is key to help maintain balance. • Rice farmers can use much less water than currently used and still obtain large yields.

6. Reducing Risks, Preserving Resilience • Natural disasters may not be natural after all. • The depletion of wetlands and the clearing of trees greatly reduces the buffer from many of these storms. • Storms, floods, earthquakes, and tidal waves are natural events, but the degree to which they produce disastrous outcomes is now often strongly influenced by human actions. • By investing in watersheds, wetlands, and floodplains, many countries are helping their cause against these devastating occurrences.

7. Bringing Water Policies into the Twenty-first Century • Signs of water scarcity and ecosystem disruption are pervasive and spreading, yet policies continue to promote inefficient, unproductive, and ecologically harmful practices. • These realities show the need for an overhaul of water policies. • South Africa leads the way in water management. • Water allocation plan to meet basic needs. • Water allocation plan to support ecosystem functions. • Many countries have followed South Africa’s lead. • Leadership, commitment, and citizen involvement are the driving forces behind many of the most innovative and successful water and policy reforms.