The past few posts revolved around our water diary assignment. I finally got to calculate my yearly water usage. I also broke down my usage into different categories.
Daily usage:
Water used in my house/yard: 88 gallons/day
Water in my diet (includes virtual water): 1,092 gallons/day
Water for transportation and energy: 558 gallons/day
Water used by myself: 121 gallons/day
This daily usage amounts to 2910 cubic meters of water per year which is slightly over the US national average of 2842 cubic meters per year. If you notice the largest consumption of water is in my diet. It is impossible to drink 1,092 gallons of water per day, but that is not what the calculation looks at. It calculates "virtual water", which is water that is used to make a certain food product (a 3 oz. piece of beef takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce).
Since our class this past week focused on resources, one of them being water, I compared the US's intake to countries in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
US Average: 2842 cubic meters/ year with 20.2% of water imported (virtual water)
Saudi Arabia: 1849 cubic meters/ year with 66.1 % of water imported (virtual water)
Yemen: 901 cubic meters/year with 75% water imported (virtual water)
Kuwait: 2072 cubic meters/year with 89% imported (virtual water)
UAE: 3136 cubic meters/year with 75.7% imported (virtual water)
What is immediately noticeable when comparing the US to the countries of the Arabian Peninsula is the difference in amounts of imported water. Since the climate on the peninsula is so dry and hot and lacks water the states overcome this by importing goods that require large amounts of water to produce. Each country is reliant on outside sources to survive, amounting to a security problem. States can't feed themselves and need others to grow the necessary crops. However, some states are countering this by buying foreign land where crops such as wheat and rice are grown. Although this is not the case for all countries. I want to focus on Yemen because it is the poorest country in the Middle East and because of the current problem of terrorism there. Water plays a key part in local politics and international politics.
Yemen's revolution and regime change left parts of the country that were initially under government control in a state of neglect. Limited government planning and intervention in the Yemeni economy before the revolution was a result of corruption from Ali Abdullah Saleh's circle of family and close friends taking over control of the economy for personal interest. President Hadi is still trying to unify Yemen but this process is slow and Saleh's influence is still present in the government. This exacerbated problems such as water availability. Poor economic conditions and little hope of making any progress after the revolution can be directly linked to the reason for Yemenis joining anti-government movements and Al-Qaeda. Currently Al-Qaeda can offer a monthly salary that dwarfs any salary made from farming or trying to make it by in local business.
Additionally, the Yemeni economy is offset by local drug problems. Yemeni men chew the locally grown plant called qat. Qat is a stimulant drug chewed for long periods of time and requires large amounts of water to grow. It is only grown locally in Yemen and most men would rather chew qat and use what water they have to keep growing it instead of using water for elsewhere. This present a major problem for a country on the brink of a major famine. Yemen is on a course of further decay with poor government regulation of water resources and an economy reliant on 75% imports. I believe Yemen shows that it isn't necessarily drinking water that is so sought after. Virtual water and the economic conditions that revolve around it have effects locally, on the security of the country, and an impact on international politics.
Daily usage:
Water used in my house/yard: 88 gallons/day
Water in my diet (includes virtual water): 1,092 gallons/day
Water for transportation and energy: 558 gallons/day
Water used by myself: 121 gallons/day
This daily usage amounts to 2910 cubic meters of water per year which is slightly over the US national average of 2842 cubic meters per year. If you notice the largest consumption of water is in my diet. It is impossible to drink 1,092 gallons of water per day, but that is not what the calculation looks at. It calculates "virtual water", which is water that is used to make a certain food product (a 3 oz. piece of beef takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce).
Since our class this past week focused on resources, one of them being water, I compared the US's intake to countries in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
US Average: 2842 cubic meters/ year with 20.2% of water imported (virtual water)
Saudi Arabia: 1849 cubic meters/ year with 66.1 % of water imported (virtual water)
Yemen: 901 cubic meters/year with 75% water imported (virtual water)
Kuwait: 2072 cubic meters/year with 89% imported (virtual water)
UAE: 3136 cubic meters/year with 75.7% imported (virtual water)
What is immediately noticeable when comparing the US to the countries of the Arabian Peninsula is the difference in amounts of imported water. Since the climate on the peninsula is so dry and hot and lacks water the states overcome this by importing goods that require large amounts of water to produce. Each country is reliant on outside sources to survive, amounting to a security problem. States can't feed themselves and need others to grow the necessary crops. However, some states are countering this by buying foreign land where crops such as wheat and rice are grown. Although this is not the case for all countries. I want to focus on Yemen because it is the poorest country in the Middle East and because of the current problem of terrorism there. Water plays a key part in local politics and international politics.
Yemen's revolution and regime change left parts of the country that were initially under government control in a state of neglect. Limited government planning and intervention in the Yemeni economy before the revolution was a result of corruption from Ali Abdullah Saleh's circle of family and close friends taking over control of the economy for personal interest. President Hadi is still trying to unify Yemen but this process is slow and Saleh's influence is still present in the government. This exacerbated problems such as water availability. Poor economic conditions and little hope of making any progress after the revolution can be directly linked to the reason for Yemenis joining anti-government movements and Al-Qaeda. Currently Al-Qaeda can offer a monthly salary that dwarfs any salary made from farming or trying to make it by in local business.
Additionally, the Yemeni economy is offset by local drug problems. Yemeni men chew the locally grown plant called qat. Qat is a stimulant drug chewed for long periods of time and requires large amounts of water to grow. It is only grown locally in Yemen and most men would rather chew qat and use what water they have to keep growing it instead of using water for elsewhere. This present a major problem for a country on the brink of a major famine. Yemen is on a course of further decay with poor government regulation of water resources and an economy reliant on 75% imports. I believe Yemen shows that it isn't necessarily drinking water that is so sought after. Virtual water and the economic conditions that revolve around it have effects locally, on the security of the country, and an impact on international politics.
Here's a source on the extent of the Qat problem: http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBRE83O0TQ20120425?irpc=932
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Yemen citizens could ever be reasoned with to lower their consumption of qat?
ReplyDeleteIn my honest opinion, no. It is so ingrained into Yemeni society that reasoning with people wouldn't work, the government would have to crack down on it with forcing people to stop. I believe qat is one example of the government not being able to effectively regulate the Yemeni economy and its natural resources. The current government just doesn't have the ability to impact Yemeni citizens lives and give them reasons to stop chewing qat.
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