Enough, for long enough: Resource security is about more than having a resource today: it must keep coming, for everyone, year after year.
The points to remember
- Resource security: a society can count on enough of a resource, long-term, to meet its demand.
- Availability: enough supply, from its own land or from imports.
- Access: people can reach it and afford it.
- Reliability: supply keeps coming through droughts, price shocks and wars.
- Sustainability: today's supply does not use up tomorrow's, e.g. aquifers not drained.
- Security is lost when demand grows faster than supply, or supply suddenly fails.
Remember it as: Enough, reachable, reliable and lasting: four tests of security.
Real example: Singapore once relied on water bought from Malaysia. It now has four sources, its 'four national taps': rain collected in reservoirs, imported water, NEWater and desalinated seawater.
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Why are some societies secure and others not? Start with where resources are, then add demand, climate, money and conflict.
Why security differs
- Resources are unevenly distributed: some places have plenty of oil or water, others little.
- So many countries depend on imports, which links them through trade and leaves them exposed.
- Demand rises with population and wealth: more people, more meat, more energy.
- Climate change brings droughts, floods and failed harvests.
- Wealth and technology let a country buy food or make water, e.g. desalination.
- Conflict cuts supply, and shortages can cause conflict; the resource curse can fuel it.
Raises security
- Own supply, or many suppliers
- Wealth to import or build
- Stable government and peace
Lowers security
- One river, one supplier, one crop
- Fast-growing demand, poverty
- Drought, war, blockade
Real example: in 2007-2008 world prices of wheat, rice and maize more than doubled after droughts, high oil prices and export bans. Countries that import much of their food were hit hardest, and protests over food prices broke out in more than 30 countries.
Link supply and demand: For each factor, say whether it changes supply or demand, then what that does to security.
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The guide asks how far two contrasting named societies have achieved security for food or water. Compare them on the same tests, then judge.
| Singapore | Cape Town, South Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| Sources | Four: rain, imports, NEWater, desalination | Mostly six dams filled by winter rain |
| Shock | Malaysian supply could be cut | Drought from 2015 to 2018 |
| What happened | NEWater can meet up to 40% of demand | Dams fell to about a quarter full |
| Response | New sources, water price includes a conservation tax | Limit of 50 litres a person a day from February 2018 |
| Verdict | High security, at a high energy cost | Low security; 'Day Zero' only just avoided |
Real example: in early 2018 Cape Town warned of 'Day Zero', when taps would be turned off and people would queue for water. People halved their use, the winter rains came, and the taps never ran dry.
'To what extent' needs a verdict: Judge each society: fully, partly or hardly secure, and why. Then say what would change your verdict, such as a longer drought or a closed border.
How this comes up: Paper 2, Section B (c): a 9-mark essay on two contrasting named societies, marked on the quality of the whole answer.
In 2019, Chennai in India nearly ran out of water, while Singapore, with even less land and no large rivers, had enough.
To what extent has resource security for water been achieved in two contrasting named societies?
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See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.