The Water Crisis In Dry, Jarrod And Neal Shusterman

The Water Crisis is a major global issue affecting people all over the world. In the book Dry, Jarrod and Neal Shusterman write about how 5 kids go on a treacherous journey just to find water and the impacts it has on them and their families and the people around California. Just like in the book, when water is scarce it causes many issues including conflict and health problems. Places all over the world are having water scarcity problems. Like California, North Africa is one of the driest places in the world. Many have to walk long distances each day just to access usable water. This creates the demand for water throughout the country. Water scarcity creates a huge demand for water causing issues to arise throughout all parts of the world.

In the city of Flint, Michigan their water crisis began in 2014 when the city’s water supply was switched from Detroit to Flint River. Within months, locals started noticing that the water started causing serious hair loss, rashes, and itchy skin. This water crisis began because of the lack of testing done on the water before (Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need To Know). The state of California has also been going through a water crisis since the 1920s. This is caused by the severe drought the area had during the time and the shrinking of the Colorado River. The shrinking of the Colorado River caused the water in its reservoir system to dramatically decrease causing a shortage of water (Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis). Africa has also been experiencing a severe drought causing water shortage since the 1980s (Water Scarcity in Africa: Everything You Need To Know). As Khani Mlaba says, “The water demand will continue to grow.” (Water Scarcity in Africa: Everything You Need To Know). This shows how water demand will keep increasing no matter where or when the issue started. The global issue is creating problems throughout the world no matter what period the shortage

One affected solution is improving the water quality. Improving water quality makes water usable. If water is available but is contaminated then it means nothing. If water is contaminated, no one can use it causing the same problem from the beginning; water crisis. One way to improve the water quality is to eliminate pollution in water. We can do this by limiting the number of factories created that hurt the environment and limiting deforestation that causes pollutants to go into the air and then travel to the water (Global action required to avert water crisis). According to the National Water Quality Month website, “National Water Quality Month is an opportunity to focus on the importance of water quality and ways to protect it. Every day, we rely on water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and cleaning. We also use water for agriculture, industry, and energy production. Water is essential for life and a key component of healthy communities and economies.” This shows how improving water quality is important and how people are coming up with solutions to improve it. Another way to improve water quality is to use water purification tablets. This helps get rid of harmful bacteria that could be in the water. These two ways can help create water usable for people (9 Water scarcity solutions — and why they work). Improving water quality creates usable water that can improve the water