Importance of Water, Water Management, and Resource Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the importance of water and effective water management strategies. It begins by emphasizing the fundamental role of water in sustaining life and ecosystems, highlighting its various uses in industries, agriculture, and daily human activities. The report details the benefits of water, including its role in hygiene, agriculture, and energy production through hydropower. It then addresses the challenges of water pollution and the importance of potable water, along with a discussion of water resources, including groundwater. The report also explores the definition and importance of water management, emphasizing its role in planning, development, and distribution of water resources to meet competing demands. The report also examines the crucial need for sustainable water management practices to balance environmental and human needs. Throughout the report, references support the presented information.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF WATER AND WATER MANAGEMENT
Importance of Water and Water Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
1.1 Importance of Water..................................................................................................................2
1.1.1 What is the Importance of Water?......................................................................................2
1.1.2 Benefits of Water................................................................................................................2
1.1.3 Uses of Water.....................................................................................................................2
1.1.4 Water and Industries...........................................................................................................3
1.1.5 Hydropower........................................................................................................................3
1.1.6 Water Pollution...................................................................................................................4
1.1.7 Potable Water......................................................................................................................4
1.1.8 Water Resources.................................................................................................................4
1.1.8.1 Groundwater................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
1.4 Water Management....................................................................................................................8
1.4.1 Definition of Water Management.......................................................................................8
1.4.2 Importance of Water Management.....................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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1.1 Importance of Water
1.1.1 What is the Importance of Water?
The Earth is composed of 75% water. It is regarded as one of the basic fundamentals for
life to support on Earth. Water is considered to be the primary building block for any kind of
ecosystem (Nazemi and Wheater 2015). The direct need of water for all living organisms is that
it plays an important role within the lives of every single individual.
Water is needed for all forms of lives to exist on the planet. The many uses of water
would include industrial, agriculture, household, recreational and different forms of
environmental activities (Voisin et al. 2013). The changes in the climate would also have
significant impacts on water resources from all parts of the world. This is due to the reason of the
closer connections between the hydrologic cycle and climate. Water could also be considered to
be critical for different economic sectors. Lakes, rivers and oceans help in providing natural
highways based on commercial navigation. They also provide places for swimming, fishing and
other activities for recreation and tourism. On environmental factors, water would be important
for maintaining a healthy, resilient and productive river system based on providing benefits to
different living organisms.
1.1.2 Benefits of Water
Water plays a major role for the hygienic state of individuals. Water is primarily used by
humans for cleansing clothes, maintenance of a healthy environment, food habits and many
others. The agricultural sector also makes vital use of water for their different purposes such as
irrigation, growing of crops and many other factors (Kunz and Moran 2014). Water forms a

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major factor for the nourishment of crops. It also plays a major role for maintaining the optimum
health of crops and farm livestock. This helps in the production of many kind of products.
1.1.3 Uses of Water
With the use of water for various aspects of navigation, the waterways play a major role
in the areas of transportation. The energy gained from water would also be maintained for
producing power and electricity (Luckmann et al. 2014). Some other places where water would
be able to generate an important role would be within the steel industry, generation of thermal
power, fertilizers, mining, chemicals, cement, fire protection, air conditioning and many others.
1.1.4 Water and Industries
There is a great need of water supply in the hydroelectric dams and thermoelectric power
plants. The high amount of supply of water would be needed for the purpose of generation of
power. Based on such types of considerations, water could be used for several chemical
processes because water could mostly be used as a solvent (Awaleh and Soubaneh 2014). Water
is also mostly used as a dissolver of numerous substances of every kind. Thus, water is regarded
as a ‘universal solvent’. Water is considered to be a universal solvent due to the high form of
dissolving capabilities of any kind of substance.
A good example of the use of water in industries is based on iron smelting. Water is
mainly used within the industries for the processing of raw materials. Many other kind of
industries that mainly make use of water are based on the wood, food production, chemicals,
gasoline, metals and many others. The different kinds of industries that produce various kinds of
materials make use of water at some point of their production.

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1.1.5 Hydropower
From the different considerations about the various uses of water and the ways it helps in
serving the variant needs of the individuals, it could be considered that water is a primary source
of life. With the several form of advancements in the technical field and overuse of petroleum,
oil and electric resources, water has been viewed with a positive intake and also as a stable form
of source of energy. The powering of hydropower stations would be directly proportional to the
supply of water that is taken by these stations (Ansar et al. 2014). Hydroelectric power is
considered as a source of energy that would be located everywhere. This would be possible in
such areas that would be capable of producing the amount of energy that would be needed by
them. This would thus help in the creation of a less demand on the international sources of fuel.
1.1.6 Water Pollution
There is a huge form of danger with the effect of polluted water within the lives of
various living organisms. It is extremely necessary to ensure the purity of water based on the
purpose of saving millions of lives (Verma and Dwivedi 2013). Humans have the major form of
responsibility to ensure that the water would be clean, pollution free and safe to consume.
1.1.7 Potable Water
Potable water is considered to be the form of water that could be consumed by humans.
There are different steps by which water can be purified, which could then be consumed by
humans. Some of the processes in which water can be purified are – boiling, chlorine drops,
iodine solutions, ultraviolet and water filter (Lin et al. 2014). The different ways of purifying
water would be extremely necessary in order to make the water ready for people to consume.

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1.1.8 Water Resources
Water resources are considered to be natural form of resources that are potentially useful
for all living organisms on Earth. Fresh water is considered to be a natural resource. The supply
of groundwater is decreasing steadily. This form of depletion in the amount of water is
prominent in South America, Asia and North America. Water is considered as an important
resource for life to exist on the planet. The change in the conditions of climate would have
significant impacts on the resources of water (Haddeland et al. 2014). Due to the expanding form
of human populations based on competition of water, many of the aquifers of water are
becoming depleted. Some of the primary resources of water are groundwater, rain water and
surface water.
1.1.8.1 Groundwater
The existence of groundwater would primarily exist in such places that would be
negligible to the human eye. The presence of groundwater is under the surface of land or rocks.
These rocks would be referred as aquifers and their primary function would be to store and
diffuse groundwater. The percentage of groundwater is composed of 33% of potable water that
would be mainly supplied to public for their use (Jackson et al. 2013). The groundwater is
considered to be the water that would flow through shallow aquifers.

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(Fig 1: Proportion of Groundwater)
(Source: Jackson et al. 2013, pp. 491)
Ground Water
Public Supply
Drinking water to rural population
Fresh Water of the Earth

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References
Ansar, A., Flyvbjerg, B., Budzier, A. and Lunn, D., 2014. Should we build more large dams?
The actual costs of hydropower megaproject development. Energy Policy, 69, pp.43-56.
Awaleh, M.O. and Soubaneh, Y.D., 2014. Waste water treatment in chemical industries: the
concept and current technologies. Hydrology: Current Research, 5(1), p.1.
Haddeland, I., Heinke, J., Biemans, H., Eisner, S., Flörke, M., Hanasaki, N., Konzmann, M.,
Ludwig, F., Masaki, Y., Schewe, J. and Stacke, T., 2014. Global water resources affected by
human interventions and climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 111(9), pp.3251-3256.
Jackson, R.E., Gorody, A.W., Mayer, B., Roy, J.W., Ryan, M.C. and Van Stempvoort, D.R.,
2013. Groundwater protection and unconventional gas extraction: The critical need for field‐
based hydrogeological research. Groundwater, 51(4), pp.488-510.
Kunz, N.C. and Moran, C.J., 2014. Sharing the benefits from water as a new approach to
regional water targets for mining companies. Journal of cleaner production, 84, pp.469-474.
Lin, W., Yu, Z., Zhang, H. and Thompson, I.P., 2014. Diversity and dynamics of microbial
communities at each step of treatment plant for potable water generation. Water research, 52,
pp.218-230.
Luckmann, J., Grethe, H., McDonald, S., Orlov, A. and Siddig, K., 2014. An integrated
economic model of multiple types and uses of water. Water Resources Research, 50(5), pp.3875-
3892.

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Nazemi, A., & Wheater, H. S. (2015). On inclusion of water resource management in Earth
system models–Part 1: Problem definition and representation of water demand. Hydrology and
Earth System Sciences, 19(1), 33-61.
Verma, R. and Dwivedi, P., 2013. Heavy metal water pollution-A case study. Recent research in
science and technology, 5(5).
Voisin, N., Li, H., Ward, D., Huang, M., Wigmosta, M. and Leung, L.R., 2013. On an improved
sub-regional water resources management representation for integration into earth system
models. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 17(9), pp.3605-3622.

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1.4 Water Management
1.4.1 Definition of Water Management
Water management is considered as the management of different resources of water
based under certain policies and regulations. Furthermore, water is considered as a common
liquid. In the recent times, the use of water is considered to be highly valuable because of
excessive usage during the times of droughts. The management of water is considered as the
integration of different activities such as planning, development and distribution of the resources
of water. The planning based on water management has a regard to all forms of competing
demands for water (Marlow et al. 2013). Thus they would seek to allocate water on a reasonable
basis in order to satisfy the demands and uses.
(Fig 2: The Management of Water is effective and a Sustainable Step of Approach)
(Source: Bajželj et al. 2014, pp. 924)
1.4.2 Importance of Water Management
The management of water is an important criteria as it would be able to determine the
future expectations from irrigation. The planning of proper form of water management would be
helpful for completing the demands of water and seeking ways for allocating water to all users

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on an equality basis (Bajželj et al. 2014). In the recent times, different engineers are planning to
balance between the environmental needs and humans needs of water. The proper form of
management of water is important so as to satisfy the varied needs of all forms of living
organisms on the planet. Hence, proper methods of planning, development and distribution of
water is highly necessary.

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References
Bajželj, B., Richards, K.S., Allwood, J.M., Smith, P., Dennis, J.S., Curmi, E. and Gilligan, C.A.,
2014. Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation. Nature Climate
Change, 4(10), p.924.
Marlow, D.R., Moglia, M., Cook, S. and Beale, D.J., 2013. Towards sustainable urban water
management: A critical reassessment. Water research, 47(20), pp.7150-7161.