Assess the validity of the view that the impact of fast fashion on water security is irreversible Jude Franklin Upper Sixth Aral Sea
Humanity is entering a new era. The human race is becoming increasingly aware of the immense impact it is having on the environment, and perhaps more importantly, the irremediable nature of this. As we edge further and further towards the precipice of irreversibility, people and our governments alike seem to be awakening to the impending peril. The general population lacks the knowledge needed to understand the severity and harm that almost all commodities, taken for granted in the developed world, have on our environment. One of the lesser known industries that has huge consequences for the environment and society, more specifically water security, is that of fashion. The clothes we wear, utilise, consume, are quite possibly contributing to a major global disaster. One of the obvious causes of a lack of potable, usable water is the immense consumption that the fashion industry
requires. This, by its very nature, reduces the availability of water, and therefore water security. The fashion industry is the third largest user of water globally, according to the fashion industry network Common Objective, with an estimated consumption of around 79 billion cubic meters per year. This should be considered a disaster for the planet. With just 3% of global water supplies being fresh water, it is key that we protect these reserves, and with industries such as textiles using so much of it, it is hard to see how a disaster can be averted.
result of the Soviet Union diverting two of its main tributary rivers: the Syr and Amu Darya. They did this in order to irrigate a desert - primarily for the growth of cotton for use in the fashion textiles industry. Large parts of the lake began to dry up, shrinking rapidly over time, so that it became split into various lobes. Huge expanses of desert, that once were submerged, now lay bare, encrusted with both the natural salts from the dried-up lake, as well as inorganic fertilisers and pesticides that drain from the surrounding cotton fields. An area that less than a century ago supported both aquatic, terrestrial and human life, as well as one of Uzbekistan’s main tourist industries, is now a symbol of the immense destruction humans are having on the Earth. The people in the area have very little; once
The fashion industry is the third largest user of water globally.
An example of this is the case of the Aral Sea. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, it is now a shell of its former glory. As demonstrated in the diagram below it has been shrinking since the 1960s as a 62
