Water security at Higher Level: The same statement as SL, with different cases: Chennai's empty reservoirs in 2019 and the arsenic in Bangladesh's wells. At HL, ask who has safe water and who does not, and why that matters for a sustainable society.
Practise this as you read
- Test each case against the four parts: enough, safe, near and reliable.
- Link each effect of poor water security to the whole society.
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Enough, safe, near, always: Water security is having access to sufficient amounts of safe drinking water. The best level is safely managed water.
The points to remember
- Water security = access to sufficient amounts of safe drinking water.
- Enough: water for drinking, cooking and washing, every day.
- Safe: free from germs and harmful chemicals.
- Accessible: at home or close by, at a price people can afford.
- Reliable: there whenever it is needed, in the dry season too.
- In 2022 about 2.2 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water; 115 million drank from rivers and ponds.
Remember it as: Enough, safe, near, always: miss one and you are not water secure.
Only the top step counts as safely managed. The next two steps use an improved source, but the water is not at home, so people must carry it.
Real example, Chennai, India, June 2019: after a weak monsoon, the city's main reservoirs were almost dry. People queued at water tankers, and trains brought water from about 200 km away. Enough water was the part of water security that failed.
Not just 'having water': A definition needs both halves: enough water AND safe drinking water. 'Having water' alone is not water security.
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A place can have plenty of water and still lack water security, because the water is not safe. Contamination can come from sewage, old pipes or the rocks themselves.
The points to remember
- Water security needs quantity (enough) and quality (safe).
- Germs from sewage cause diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.
- Chemicals poison people slowly: lead from old pipes, arsenic from some rocks.
- Water scarcity is about the amount of water available to people.
- Water security adds safety and access: enough safe water that people can reach.
- So a place can have plenty of water and still no water security.
Water scarcity
- How much water is available
- Too little water for people's needs
- Example: Chennai's reservoirs in 2019
Water security
- Access to enough SAFE water
- Enough, safe, near and reliable
- Example: Bangladesh's wells had plenty of water, but it was unsafe
Remember it as: Scarcity counts the litres. Security also asks: is it safe, and can you reach it?
Real example, Bangladesh: from the 1970s millions of tube wells were drilled to avoid the germs in ponds and rivers. In the 1990s tests found arsenic, a natural poison from the rocks, in many of them. Years of drinking it cause skin disease and cancers.
Do not mix them up: Scarcity is about the amount of water. Security is about access to enough safe water. Say which one the question asks about.
Water security is a significant part of a sustainable society. Without safe water, health, learning and work all suffer.
The points to remember
- Health: unsafe water spreads disease; dirty water causes about half a million deaths from diarrhoea a year.
- Time: with no tap at home, women and girls spend hours fetching water instead of school or work.
- Food and jobs: farms, factories and power stations need a reliable supply.
- Peace: when water runs short, people and countries compete for it.
- SDG 6: the UN goal of clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
- So water security is a significant component of a sustainable society.
Remember it as: Safe water: healthy people, girls in school, farms and firms at work.
Real example, SDG 6: in 2015 every UN member agreed Sustainable Development Goal 6. In 2023 WHO and UNICEF reported that progress on safely managed drinking water would have to be about six times faster to reach it.
Link it to the whole society: Say what goes wrong for the society, not only the person: 'girls miss school, so fewer adults can earn a living later'.
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Water security can be lost when the supply falls, the water becomes unsafe, or people can no longer reach or pay for it. Later micros look at each cause in more detail.
The points to remember
- Drought: less rain, so rivers and reservoirs run low.
- Pollution: sewage, farm chemicals and factory waste make water unsafe.
- Broken infrastructure: pipes leak and treatment plants fail, so water is lost or not cleaned.
- Rising demand: more people, farms and factories share the same supply.
- Cost: poor homes cannot pay for a tap and buy from vendors at high prices.
Remember it as: Too little, too dirty, too far, too costly.
Real example, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2014-2015: a severe drought left the Cantareira reservoirs, which supplied nearly half the city, about 5% full by early 2015. Water pressure was cut at night to make the supply last.
Name what is lost: In a data question, link each problem to the part of water security it removes: enough, safe, near or reliable.
How this comes up: Paper 2, Section B (a): four separate points on why water security matters for a sustainable society [4].
Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to give everyone safe drinking water by 2030.
Outline four reasons why water security is a significant component of a sustainable society.
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