Matt Clark Block A Geography 12 Water, more precious than oil? Water always has and always will have a fundamental role in the continuation of life on our planet. Oil however, has not. Crude oil has never been a necessity, but a luxury in our everyday lives. Water is more precious than oil. This can be shown through its variety of uses and its necessity in our lives and for our well being. Oil of course has many uses in our world but is not fundamental in the survival of life. The future for both oil and water is troubled, oil is being rapidly leached by humans and water is being slowly contaminated. Alternatives can be found for oil, but not for water. Oil and water can be compared and ranked for importance in three major areas of use; agricultural, industrial and domestic use. Life is not possible without water. “Without water, there can be no life. Every living thing- plants, animals and people- must have water to live.” Of course this means that agriculture would not be possible without a supply of water. “Agriculture uses 47% of the fresh water available, or about 200 billion litres a day.” Water feeds plants and irrigates lands allowing farmers to produce crops. “Industry accounts for about 40% of all fresh water use” Industry uses water to transport goods, cool machinery, dispose of waste, as a power source, and refining of natural resources. Water is used in the making of steel, plastic and paper as well as numerous other products. “The amount of water it takes to make the steel for one washing machine is 15,000 litres.” These are only a small amount of uses that water has in industry. This leaves about 10% of the water supply for domestic use, “the average person uses 300 litres of water per day”...
