Leaving the water on while brushing your teeth can waste 5 liters of water in one minute. On the East coast of North America, it is easy to waste water without thinking. But according to environmental teacher Doug Sabin, in 20 years, due to the increase in population, there will be a strain for water in our area. Next time you throw away a partially drunken bottle of water, think about the people miles away, working to preserve what little water they have and the people dying from dehydration in other parts of the world.

In the West, people mainly get their water from groundwater. However the Colorado River has been diverged to seven different states, which require more water to sustain a large population of people than the river would naturally allow. The Colorado which used to reach the Gulf of Mexico does not today. California and Nevada have been working on ways of reducing their usage of water by drip irrigation and growing plants native to the region rather than attempting to grow grass and other plants that require a lot of water.

The ideal solution to the lack of water would be reforestation. Reforestation is the most affective way to increase rain fall. Less forests means less water. However, with growing population, demand for water and more hard surfaces, reforestation becomes an impossible goal.

The lack of water is so bad, countries have begun to fight over it. “In the entire Middle East you can expect to see water shortages spill blood,” Sabin said. Israel and Lebanon are experiencing new animosity toward each other over the Latini River, a major source of water.

Countries sharing the Nile River water flow are also in conflict. The biggest problem regarding the dispersion of the Nile’s water is that a treaty involving Nile dispersion guarantees water for only two of the nine countries that get their water from the Nile.

The missing monsoon of 1995 first sparked problems in India. The conflict continues and has resulted in the anger of many farmers who are loosing their livelihood due to the lack of water. They have protested and the government is pressured to get the people more water. It is unclear where they will be able to get this water.

Due to global warming and other environmental problems there will be many other things attributing to water shortages, like the missing monsoon in India. As the population increases and global warming causes more droughts water strain is destined to increase.