A city has a plentiful supply of water from a nearby river, but health authorities warn residents not to use it for drinking or cooking. In what way does this situation represent water scarcity, and what human activities typically cause it?
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:30 · grounding rag
Model Answer
The city has abundant water from the river, yet it cannot be used for drinking or cooking. This represents qualitative water scarcity — water is available in quantity but is unfit for use due to pollution.
Human activities that cause this:
- Industrial waste — factories discharge chemicals and effluents into rivers.
- Domestic waste — sewage and untreated wastewater are released into water bodies.
- Agricultural chemicals — excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers seeps into and pollutes river water.
Thus, water scarcity is not always about quantity; polluted water makes even plentiful supplies hazardous for human use.
Source: Water Resources, Chapter 3 — "Water Scarcity and the Need for Water Conservation and Management"
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Explanation
- The key concept here is qualitative water scarcity (as opposed to quantitative). The textbook explicitly states: "water is sufficiently available… but the area still suffers from water scarcity… due to bad quality of water… polluted by domestic and industrial wastes, chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers."
- Examiners award marks for: (1) correctly identifying this as qualitative/pollution-based scarcity, and (2) naming at least two or three human activities responsible.
- Avoid writing about drought or lack of rainfall — that is a different kind of scarcity and does not apply here.