Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

 3.1. 
 Hydrological cycle
Water is a renewable natural resource that sustains life on 
the Earth. Water is the most important chemical substance for the 
existence of human beings and all other species. Only a minor amount 
of the global water resources is available for a human consumption.
Deterioration of the freshwater quality and depletion of its 
resources is becoming one of the major problems of society in the 
21
st
 century. In 2005, good quality drinking water was not available 
to  two  billion  of  the  world’s  population.  According  to  the  UN 
prognosis,  2.8  billion  people  in  48  countries  will  suffer  from  the 
shortage of freshwater by 2025; 40 of these countries are in central 
Asia (including Uzbekistan), northern Africa and the Sahel zone in 
Africa. For now, the international society does not have a solution to 
this problem, and a chronic freshwater deficit in 2050 is expected to 
affect as many as four billion people.
Although  the  Earth’s  freshwater  resources  are  huge,  many  of 
them are not easily accessible for a variety of reasons (situated high 
up in the mountains or deep underground), or their quality is not 
suitable for human consumption. However, availability of water has 
already caused conflicts between people and countries alike. Experts 
warn that in the future water problems can create conflicts in central 
Asia,  among  Turkey,  Syria  and  Iraq  if  Turkey  builds  dams  on  the 
Tigris and the Euphrates. In Africa, battles are going on for the waters 
of the Niger, in Asia for the Mekong, the Indus and the Ganges.
The use of water resources differs from country to country based 
on the level of development of the country and accessibility of water 
resources. In economically developed countries the average daily 
water consumption per person is 200-800 litres, while in developing 
countries it will hardly exceed 60-150 litres per day.
1 
«Directive  2000/60/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council 
establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy» 
or EU Water Framework Directive