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Thursday March 26, 2009

World’s vital freshwater supplies awash with problems

MIDWEEK WITH BUNN NAGARA


ONLY days after the event, criticism of the weeklong fifth World Water Forum for doing too little after it concluded in Istanbul on Sunday already looks like water under the bridge.

Few people seemed aware that last Sunday was World Water Day, and probably fewer still knew anything about the World Water Forum or its organisers the World Water Council. Many were oblivious to the fact that World Water Day had been an annual UN event for 17 years already, or that a record 20,000 people from around the world attended this year’s triennial forum.

At least since the mid-1990s, several strategic analysts had predicted that sourcing for potable water would become as important as oil supply. With “water as the new oil,” it is even said that “water wars” could break out in desperate scrambles over this most precious resource for life.

With heightened concerns over climate change and global warming in recent years, the scarcity of clean water appears to have become more acute. Yet governments everywhere have failed to educate their public on the problems and likely solutions, even when government’s role is crucial.

As for other vital resources, prudent water management has to navigate between growing demand and limited supply. That means water conservation is key.

However, even developed countries can lag in conservation. Canadians use more than twice as much water as Britons (339 to 163 litres per person per day on average) – like in some Third World countries, up to 40% of Canadian supply is lost through transmission leakage.

With so much foreboding, “otherworldly” pursuits like space exploration can seem quite alluring. But there is no escaping the obvious, such as the recent excitement among scientists over the prospect of water on Mars – underscoring the necessity of water for “life as we know it”.

In six decades, there have been more than 200 water agreements among governments. More agreements are likely, whether or not they will be all be honoured, since fierce competition over fresh water is magnified by political disputes over territory where it is found.

Covering two-thirds of the planet, water has been significant to society from opportunities in fisheries and transportation to problems like piracy and smuggling. Issues of clean drinking water for growing populations in parched or polluted environments are even more intense.

The world is already divided between rich and poor over food, fuel, land, rights, information and wealth. Add to that list water, an element that can determine health or sickness, life or death.

Increasing worldwide demand for water in agriculture and industry is already a given. Biofuels requiring up to 4,000 times as much water to produce a unit of fuel also add to the pressures on supply.

More than a billion people today live without clean water, and more than twice as many without water for sanitation. Up to two-thirds of the world’s population could suffer water shortages as early as 2025, the Istanbul forum observed.

Global warming means rising sea levels, which in turn means increased salination of underground sources of fresh water in coastal areas. But because international efforts tend to be led by developed countries where water scarcity is less obvious, insufficient attention is given to these problems – as the limited forum statement proves.

The fifth World Water Forum’s failure to produce a single protocol after an entire week’s deliberations disappointed many participants. The sixth forum in 2012 may be no better, but what is certain is that the world’s water situation would be worse by then.

Drought and desertification are already hitting parts of Australia, China and elsewhere. Incentives to act should be made clear, or clearer: the WHO has found that investment in water and sanitation projects can produce seven times as much economic benefit as the cost.

At issue is the increasing ratio of dirty to clean water, producing a host of economic, environmental, health, social and other problems. Private use of water filters and bottled drinking water is no real solution, only highlighting the lack of acceptably clean tap water as a public utility and a civil-economic right.

Whether on the planet’s surface or in underground streams, water flows observe no national boundaries. Effective solutions to the impending water crisis must know no such boundaries either.

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