WSES-5-The hydrologic cycle and water balance

Abstract

The present growth of production, the rise of living standards, higher culture and welfare requirements of the population are resulting in greatly increased water demands. With developing culture and civilisation, the significance of water is dynamically growing for man and society alike; the consumption of water in industry as well as in agriculture, in households as well as in communities, grow rapidly enough to make it, in certain areas of the earth, the availability of water and the controlled and rational utilisation of the resources a decisive factor in progress. Taking the present rate of water consumption and the population growth as a basis, the needs for water may be expected to increase to one and half times or even more of what they are now, in the next twenty years. Improving living standards - a rightful claim of all people in the world - the struggle to overcome famine in certain parts of the world by irrigation and by introduction of agriculture over ever larger areas, the establishment of new industrial plants and the progress of industry throughout the world, are expected to cause a further substantial increase in water demand.