For the first case study, the location of this development is focused in central Namibia, primarily in the city of Windhoek. It’s predicted the city of Windhoek will run dry by September of this year, unless the rainy season refills the three main dams supplying the towns in Namibia. The link to the web page i’m drawing all this information from is, http://allafrica.com/stories/201601130754.html. In the article they spoke about how the water shortages will affect households, businesses and the Namibian economy at large, saying the only solution would be to tap underground water sources. They’re also looking at other various options to relieve the current water scarcity. It’s believed that recycling of sewage water would not eradicate water shortages, but could possibly increase the supply source and ensure that water is used for a longer period.

For the second case study, the location of the development study is in Europe. In this case, their focus is on potential water scarcity and how it is of immediate relevance to the brewing sector. In other words, their focus was on how to make more beer with loosing less water. The website for this case is: http://www.erm.com/en/insights/case-studies/case-study-the-brewers-of-europe/.  Over the past few years a broad range of guidance documents, tools, standards and schemes focused on more sustainable and integrated water management practices have been developed by various organizations. The Brewers of Europe wanted an online operational water source tool library, that would inform the workers about the diversity in approaches to sustainable water management and provide clarity on the current most applicable and relevant water stress identification and assessment tools and methodologies for the beer sector. The tool provided an opportunity to ensure that the brewers understand that water vulnerability requires a holistic approach that considers not only on-site water consumption and wastewater treatment but also issues around water availability, ecosystem management or supply risk.

Although water scarcity and quality is an increasingly urgent and politically sensitive issue, fortunately where i’m from, Syracuse, New York, I haven’t personally been affected by this rising issue. The primary water supply for the City of Syracuse is Skaneateles Lake, a “Finger Lake” located approximately 20 miles southwest of the City. Although we get our water supply from a lake, this specific lake is part of the Finger Lakes, which is composed of 5 different bodies of water. On top of that, we have a back up water supply, which comes from Lake Ontario. The City normally relies upon Lake Ontario water during times when drought conditions limit the available supply from Skaneateles, during emergencies, or during periods of high consumption. Therefore, the likelihood of water becoming scarce is far less likely than it is from places like Windhoek, where their water supply is dependent solely on rainfall. As referenced back in our model, they stated how the simplest and most common measures for development, are those based on monetary statistics like income or gross domestic product. I liked how neither of my cases were measured by monetary statistics.