Freshwater is a renewable resource,due to rain, but it is not limitless. If people consume it faster than nature can replace it, the quality and the amount of freshwater sources that is remaining declines. Agriculture makes up a huge 70% of freshwater use. Crops like cotton,sugar and rice are especially thirsty and require a great amount of water to grow. It can take almost 5,000 litres of water to cultivate just 1 kg of rice. In the 2008 forecast for world rice production was 434.3 million tons of water [ USDA]. Water is crucial for farming. Lots of countries grow crops that are not suitable for the local weather and soil, due to government subsidies which make these crops profitable. When overproduction takes place, the salinity of the soil …show more content…
Stream ecosystems can be greatly damaged where urban development happens along the banks, like where a stream has been straightened by channelisation or where people's buildings have taken the place of natural vegetation. Also urban development that happens all over a watershed, not only on the bank, can lead to a degraded ecosystem within a stream through water flow changes and sediment erosion. Urban development most often causes deeper stream channels. Lake Ontario, in Canada, is one of the main lakes affected by urbanisation.Point source contamination to water systems are a likely side effect of urbanisation. Industrial facilities and sewage-treatment plants add a great load of an assortment of contaminants to streams which greatly affect the quality of the water. Stream contamination can easily lower the freshwater quality, particularly where streams permeate groundwater. Point source contamination to groundwater comes from septic tanks, landfills, and industrial marshes. Eroded soil from building sites is washed into lakes and streams where it leads to too much turbidity that damages aquatic flora and fauna, increases the cost of water treatments, and makes the water unuseful for recreation; and sedimentation that blocks drainage and destroys aquatic