Module 1

LESSON
4 Water Use

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 distinguish water intake from water discharge as they affect the

amount of consumed water; and
 outline the anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric activities
that lead to a freshwater shortage.

Introduction:
Hello, hope you are doing good! Welcome to Lesson 4 of Module 1. In
this lesson, you are about to learn some human activities affecting water resources.
Moreover, there are some tasks that you need to accomplish so that you will grasp
the gist of these topics. So, are you ready? Alright, let’s begin!

Activity:

Mention activities that pertains to the uses of water. Use the

designated space below.

 Swimming
 Planting
 Surfing
 Water Balloon Fight
 Foam Party

Analysis:

A. From your list of activities, classify them whether they

belong to an in-stream use or to a water withdrawal use.

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 Water Withdrawal Use
In-Stream Use

 Planting

 Swimming  Water Balloon Fight

 Surfing  Foam Party

Abstraction:

As you can see, humans can both benefit and exploit

environmental resources. Now let’s discuss deeply how our water use
affects the environment.

Water use is described as the

total amount of water There are two ways in which we can
withdrawn from its source to be classify our water use:
used.

In-stream Use Water Withdrawal Use

It includes hydroelectric power, This classification includes household

boating, and swimming, for example. use, industry use, irrigation, livestock
While in-stream activities do not use watering, and thermal and nuclear
up the water, they can degrade the power. Most withdrawals are
water quality through pollution. consumptions, meaning that the
activity uses the water and does not
return to the source.

How can we determine our water consumption (see Figure 1.12)?

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 Figure 1.12 How Human Population Consumes Water

Water Use and Shortages: The Environmental Impact

Freshwater is one of the most imperiled natural resources and is the ultimate
rate-limiting step for food production. Remarkably, the production of food is, in
essence, the most water-intensive activity in the world.

Areas of Concerns in Freshwater Consumption

Anthropocentric Ecocentric
Biocentric Wasting water while our
Freshwater is a vital
Other species rely on
resource for the survival of demand for water increases
freshwater besides humans
our population. Seeing as (as population and
as a vital component of their
less than 1% of the world’s standards of living increase
survival! Overuse of
water is fresh water and globally), means that we
freshwater in household
available for us to consume, need to supplement this
settings means there is less
there are limitations that lack of freshwater by pulling
freshwater for agricultural
factor into our carrying it out of aquifers or
use (which affects humans
capacity as a population on groundwater supplies in
on a food scarcity level), but
Earth including the which their regeneration
many livestock species rely
availability and distribution rate is lower than the
on freshwater.
of freshwater. extraction rate.

Figure 1.13 shows how aquatic environment conversion (triggered by human

activities such as agricultural and industrial activities) affects the environment and
causes environmental destruction.

Diversion of Plant and animal

aquatic Loss of species can
species are 3
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Ecosystem
the loss of
threatened or
other species
(for agricultural endangered due
within freshwater
 Figure 1.13 Effects of Aquatic Environmental Conversion

Moreover, water takes a lot of energy, time, and money to filter so that it is
safe and drinkable. Therefore, wasting water or extensive water consumption means
that you are wasting the energy-intensive process of filtration (see Figure 1.14).

These processes require non-

renewable fossil fuels. When these
fuels are depleted, their dangerous
by-products (Carbon dioxide) build-
up in Earth’s atmosphere and may
cause Earth’s rising temperatures.

Figure 1.14 Effects of wasting safe and drinking water

Application:
A. Provide the possible hydrological impact of human activities
to the environment. Use the designated column for your
answers.

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 Human Activities Hydrological Impacts on the Environment

1. Drilling of wells More wells can turn groundwater to dry up

and leads to the scarcity of water in a
locality.

2. Mass construction of houses, etc. Natural water resources (ponds, lakes,

etc.) are compromised for the mass
construction of buildings.

3. Urbanization of area completed by Land resources will decrease and can

the addition of more buildings affect the natural water cycle.

4. Drilling of deeper, large-capacity Large-capacity industrial wells can suck

industrial wells large volumes of water and can affect the
environment around them such as less
moisture to the ground and a low fertility
rate in the area.

5. Increased use of water for air Massive water withdrawal to make air
conditioning conditioner run efficiently can accumulate
over time and could be wasteful.

B. Give at least 5-sentence descriptions of how human hydrologic activities

decrease long-term water security and availability.

- Water is an essential part of human survival and without it, living would not
be as we know it. Yet humans have been consuming and using water in ways
that are wasteful and inefficient which can lead to problems that are possibly
irreversible. Human hydrologic activities can cause setbacks like water
quality, security, and availability when these said activities are wasteful and
inefficient and start to disrupt the natural cycle of water. Because of these
wasteful activities and practices, the demand for water increases as the
population rises while the renewal of groundwater cannot keep up with the

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 need and the filtration process takes resources to operate. This would lead to
issues that people are now facing today – low water security, availability, and
quality.

Assessment:

Instructions: Choose the letter of your answer Write your answer

on the space provided before the item number.

_____1. Which of the following will commence when fertilizers enter the
surface water that leads to watershed problems?
A. Causing rapid algal growth that decreases oxygen levels and
chokes aquatic life.
B. Increasing the amount of nutrients available to fish in lakes and
streams.
C. Raising the water level in nearby rivers to levels leading to
flooding.
D. Clogging of narrow streams and preventing water from flowing.

_____2. Close monitoring of the use of pesticides and herbicides is cautiously

done due to its effect they can have on the environment. Which of the
following is a possible negative effect on the use of these chemicals on
the environment?
A. These chemicals are expensive to produce.
B. These chemicals cannot be purchased in large bulk.
C. Runoff carries these chemicals into lakes and streams.
D. Storage space for these chemicals is limited.

_____3. Which of the following will be considered as endpoints of wastes

products produced by agriculture, households, industry, mining, and
other human activities?
A. Groundwater C. Stream and River
B. Ocean D. All of the choices

_____4. The movement of water through a man‐made water system shifts

water from its withdrawal point to a location where treated
wastewater is discharged back to the environment. This reduces
infiltration as well as reduces low flows between the point of
withdrawal and the point of discharge. All of the following will
generally occur out of these changes except one. Which is it?
A. Reduce water depth,
B. Decrease water temperature
C. Increase the negative impact of sediment oxygen demand
D. Degrade the water quality.

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 _____5. When can an impact of water withdrawals become a serious
concern to local water suppliers?
A. When the rate of withdrawal does not exceed the replacement of
that water.
B. When it can lead to water quantity challenges (shortages).
C. When it gives positive environmental impacts.
D. None of the given choices.
__________________________________________________________________
Excellent! You just finished Lesson 4 of this Module! Should you have any
questions or queries regarding this lesson, please do not hesitate to reach out to
your instructors.
Are you ready to take your next lesson? Lesson 5 will discuss about Energy and
Transport. Good luck and enjoy reading.

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