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Quiz yourself on Water Resource ManagementGet your flashcardsBuild my revision planTrack my progress🧠 The POCA Framework — Threats to Water Security
Use POCA to remember the four main threats to water security in any extended answer:
P — Pollution: Agricultural run-off (nitrates, phosphates, pesticides), industrial discharge, raw sewage. 2.2 billion people lack safe water partly because of contamination.
O — Over-abstraction: Withdrawing water faster than it replenishes. The Aral Sea is the most extreme example. Groundwater over-abstraction is happening in India, the US and the Middle East right now.
C — Climate change: Changing rainfall patterns, glacier retreat, more intense droughts. Cape Town's Day Zero was driven partly by three consecutive drought years linked to climate change.
A — Access/Inequality: Economic water scarcity — water exists but the infrastructure to deliver it doesn't. More people affected by this than by physical scarcity. Driven by poverty and weak governance.
And for evaluating management strategies, remember SCALE:
S — Size: How many people does it reach? A fog catcher serves a village; a dam serves millions.
C — Cost: Who can afford it? Appropriate tech is accessible to LICs; mega-dams require government finance or foreign investment.
A — Access and fairness: Who gets the benefit and who bears the cost? Three Gorges benefits distant cities while local communities were displaced.
L — Long-term sustainability: Does it damage the environment? Can it be maintained? Sand dams last decades with minimal maintenance; large dams have irreversible ecological impacts.
E — Environmental impact: What is the ecological cost? Fog catchers: near zero. Three Gorges: Yangtze dolphin extinct, delta eroding.
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