The Bahamas is a small island nation that is dealing with the problem of freshwater shortage. All of the country’s freshwater is contained in shallow lens aquifers that are recharged solely by rainfall. The country has been struggling to meet the water demands by employing a combination of over-pumping of aquifers, transport of water by barge between islands, and desalination of sea water. In recent decades, new development on New Providence, where the capital city of Nassau is located, has created a large area of impervious surfaces and thereby a substantial amount of runoff with the result that several of the aquifers are not being recharged. A geodatabase was assembled to assess and estimate the quantity of runoff from these impervious surfaces and potential recharge locations were identified using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. This study showed that runoff from impervious surfaces in New Providence represents a large freshwater resource that could potentially be used to recharge the lens aquifers on New Providence.

The Ganges Delta in Bangladesh, a transboundary rural river basin, is an example of water-related calamities due to natural and human-induced stresses. It is an agriculture-dominated area with the presence of Sundarbans mangrove forest. Recently this area is facing unfavorable conditions due to limitations in quantity, quality, and timing of available freshwater. As a result, floods, droughts, water scarcity, stream depletion, salinity intrusion, excessive sedimentation are becoming common phenomena. These calamities are making this area unsuitable for agriculture and vulnerable to the Sundarbans’ ecosystem. This study aims to provide technical insight into issues related to water scarcity and projected agricultural water demand for 2020-2100 considering the climate change uncertainties. We addressed three critical areas to attain this purpose. As a first task, this study attempted to analyze and understand the observed hydrological changes over the past six decades to fathom the critical reasons for freshwater scarcity. Secondly, interdependency, availability, and accessibility of surface water and groundwater were analyzed to investigate the adequacy of current water demand and supply in agriculture, industrial and domestic sectors. Irrigation demand is much higher than others and occupies 93% of the total water demand. Similarly, irrigation is 96% of total water withdrawal. This high demand in the agriculture sector led to our next objective to estimate agricultural demand for this century. It helps to understand an overall agricultural water consumption scenario for the future. This study provides necessary background information, which is vital for hydro-economically feasible agricultural water management plans.

Vatten är grunden för allt liv på jorden och en livsviktig resurs för både människor, djur och växtlighet. Trots det tenderar människor att se vatten som en oändlig resurs och tar tillgången på rent dricksvatten för givet. I Sverige används både grundvatten samt ytvatten från vattendrag och sjöar till dricksvatten. Tillgången på sötvatten påverkas av förändringar i klimatet och under de senaste åren har somrarna i de södra delarna av Sverige varit ovanligt torra och varma samtidigt som det har fallit mindre nederbörd än vad som är normalt. Detta har tidvis medfört en osäkerhet kring tillgången på dricksvatten. Syftet med studien som gjordes var att kartlägga allmänhetens kunskap och medvetenhet kring yt-och grundvattenbrist i framförallt de östra delarna av Blekinge län och undersöka ifall denna uppfattning stämde överens med ansvariga offentliga verksamheters strategi och information kring vattenbrist. I studien genomfördes två intervjuer med ansvariga verksamheter för vattenförvaltning i Blekinge län samt en allmän enkätundersökning som metod för att kartlägga allmänhetens kunskap kring vattenbrist. Utifrån resultaten från enkätundersökningen kunde det konstateras att den allmänna medvetenheten kring vattenbrist i Blekinge län generellt sett var god och att utgångspunkten för att människor skulle vara beredda att förändra sina dagliga vanemönster såg relativt hoppfull ut. Däremot framgick det att majoriteten av de respondenter som svarade på enkätundersökningen skulle önska mer information från ansvariga offentliga verksamheter gällande vattenbrist och tydligare riktlinjer för hur man kan gå tillväga för att hushålla med dricksvatten. / Water is the basis of all life on Earth and a vital resource for humans, animals and plants. Despite this, the public tends to see water as an endless resource and many people often take the supply of drinking water for granted. The access of fresh water is affected by climate change and in the last couple of years, the summers in the southernmost parts of Sweden have been unusually dry and warm and meanwhile there has been less precipitation than usual. This has occasionally led to an uncertainty regarding access to drinking water. The purpose of the study was to estimate the awareness of the public regarding surface and groundwater scarcity, particularly in the eastern parts of Blekinge county, and to examine if this awareness overlapped with public authorities' strategies and information about water scarcity. The study consisted of two interviews with responsible water management authorities in Blekinge and a general survey as a means to clarify the public's knowledge about water scarcity. Based on the results of the survey it was determined that the general awareness of water scarcity in Blekinge is generally good. Furthermore, the outlook for changed behaviour among the public on daily habit basis look promising. However, the majority of the respondents in the survey would wish for more information from responsible public authorities regarding water scarcity and more distinct guidelines on how to save drinking water.