Global water supply and sustainable strategies
Water is the optional section most learners choose. This lesson covers global surplus and deficit, the impacts of insecurity, and the strategies that close the gap.
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Explain the demand for food, water and energy and evaluate strategies to increase supply sustainably.
Key learning points
- • Surplus, deficit and insecurity
- • Impacts of insecurity
- • Increasing supply
- • Sustainable schemes
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 21 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 21
Visual introductionPicture this
Global water supply and sustainable strategies
Water is the optional section most learners choose. This lesson covers global surplus and deficit, the impacts of insecurity, and the strategies that close the gap.
In a nutshell
Explain the demand for food, water and energy and evaluate strategies to increase supply sustainably.
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 21
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Surplus, deficit and insecurity
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 21
Learn
Surplus, deficit and insecurity
Water security means reliable access to enough safe water. Physical scarcity reflects climate and reserves; economic scarcity reflects the money to abstract, treat and distribute it. Demand rises with population, industry and irrigated agriculture.
Reset break
Part 4 of 21
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 21
Learn
Impacts of insecurity
Waterborne disease and poor sanitation, reduced food production, industrial output limits and conflict over shared rivers and aquifers. Note that impacts fall hardest on those already poorest, which is a useful evaluative sentence.
Quick check
Part 6 of 21
Quick check
Part 7 of 21
Reset break
Part 8 of 21
Pause
That's sitting 2 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 9 of 21
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Increasing supply
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 21
Learn
Increasing supply
Diverting supplies and increasing storage, dams and reservoirs, water transfers and desalination. Desalination provides reliable water in arid, wealthy regions but is energy-intensive and produces concentrated brine.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 21
Learn
Sustainable schemes
Water conservation, groundwater management, recycling, grey-water use and small-scale rainwater harvesting. Local, low-technology schemes maintained by users repeatedly outperform capital-intensive projects in poorer regions.
Reset break
Part 12 of 21
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 13 of 21
Quick check
Part 14 of 21
Explore the idea
Part 15 of 21
Worked example
Model answer: 'Evaluate one large-scale water supply scheme' (9 marks, extract)
A large dam and reservoir raises water security substantially, storing wet-season flow so that supply continues through a dry season, while generating hydroelectricity and enabling irrigation that raises yields for several million people. These are real, measurable gains for a region with a physical water deficit. The costs, however, are equally concrete: valley communities are displaced, sediment that once fertilised the floodplain is trapped behind the dam, downstream ecosystems and fisheries decline, and construction costs commit a government to long-term debt. Judged against a rainwater harvesting programme, the dam delivers far greater volume but concentrates both the benefit and the risk, so it is justified only where demand cannot be met by distributed small-scale supply.
Reset break
Part 16 of 21
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 17 of 21
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 18 of 21
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
____ rises with population, industry and irrigated agriculture.
Desalination provides reliable water in arid, wealthy regions but is ____-intensive and produces concentrated brine.
Challenge round
Part 19 of 21
Game · Recall cards
What is economic water scarcity?
Card 1 of 4
Mastery quiz
Part 20 of 21
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Global water supply and sustainable strategies
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. What is economic water scarcity?
2. What is a major drawback of desalination?
3. Which is a sustainable, small-scale strategy?
4. Who is most affected by water insecurity?
Lesson round-up
Part 21 of 21
Lesson round-up
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Ask LunaPart 1 of 21 · Watch & discover