2. Introduction… The Caribbean islands are mostly famous for its beautiful beaches and and amazing shorelines, but mostly they are known for their waters in both marine and fresh. The Caribbean's own 30% of the world’s water because of the place its located on the globe. With the amount of tourists increasing the the dependency on water resources is increasing and there have been many impacts on different areas which are economic, social, and environmental.
4. Description of Location… The Caribbean is a region located in the Caribbean sea and southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and North America. It is a collection of several islands. The Caribbean sea is a shelter to many school of fish, turtles, and coral reefs. The area of the Caribbean is 2, 754,000 km² and the land only covers 239,681 km². The points above show that water is one of the most valuable resource in the region.
5. Economic Impacts… Water is the key factor of most of the economic resources: Agriculture Water is needed to plant the crops and the water has to be clean for the crops to grow. Industry In common knowledge it is known that food processing, pulp and paper chemical and petro-chemical, and textiles industries are the most water demanding industries. Tourism It is the most section that depends on water resources in the region and this industry overuses the resource for a variety of tourist attractions like hotels, also the overuse of water may lead to shortage of water and the amount of wastewater to increase.
6. Environmental Impacts… There are three main sections for the impacts: Pollution The main leaders to pollution are the industries and factories and the pollution will affect the quality of the water and the pollution is centered near the largest metropolitan areas. Another factor would be the expansion of sewage system which have not been cleaned and only 2% of the water gets neutralized. Eco Systems The eco systems living in the water like the fish schools and coral reefs are decreasing everyday because of the pollution in the water that is caused by industrial activities.
7. Social Impacts… The social challenges can be categorized into several parts: Increased pipe coverage rates Improving health conditions and reducing water borne diseases. Reduce the risk of natural hazards There are 78 million people who do not have access to piped water supply in the region, included to that there are 120 million people who do not have access to daily sanitation services. If the government do not take action this will risk severe health issues that are due to the lack of sanitation.
8. Political Impacts… The dependency on the limited water resource the region lacks good strategies to manage the water supply and the quality of the water. The government understand that water is important to their citizens but they are not trying really hard to solve the issue. The government are not using the correct strategies and management to save the water. They are unaware that if the water gets affected more and the resource becomes more limited they will have a loss since the tourists want clean and healthy water to look at.
9. Possible Solutions… There are many solutions to this type of problem: The major uses of the water like tourist attractions have to use less water and are able to use a certain amount and if that amount is exceeded then they should pay for it to feel how precious it is. The amount of water plants have to increase and the amount of water that is being neutralized have to increase. The citizens have to have certain amount of water and the pipes for sewage have to be separated from the clean water and the water has to be filtered before it is used by the population to decrease health risks.
10. Bibliography… "Environmental Impacts of Tourism." GDRC | The Global Development Research Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. <http://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/envi/one.html>. "Caribbean." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2011http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean. Martin, Orlando San. Water Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean: Issues and Options. Inter-American Development Bank Sustainable Development Department Environment Division, 2002. Print. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. <http://www.caribbean-waternet.org/>. Prian. 24 Jan. 2011 <http://prian.eu/upload/2006_11/1caribbean-map.gif>.
