Water, water everywhere?
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World water reserves are drying up fast and
booming populations, pollution and global warming will combine to cut the
average person's water supply by a third in the next 20 years, the United
Nations says.
A report published by the U.N. on Wednesday ahead of the Third World Water
Forum in Kyoto, Japan, from March 16 to 23, criticised political leaders
for failing to take action and, in some cases, disputing the very
existence of a water crisis.
"About 20 percent of the world's population does
not have access to safe drinking water, which we take for granted," said Gordon
Young, director of the World Water Assessment Programme at UNESCO, the U.N.'s
cultural agency, which compiled the report.
"There is not sufficient water for adequate sanitation and hygiene for about 40
percent of the world's population," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "It is
an absolute tragedy."
Water supplies per capita have fallen dramatically since 1970 and are set to
continue declining, the report found. |
Australian farmer Bill Finlayson and his
daughter sit on their horses as they look out across the remains of a
sheep on his drought-stricken property near the township of Brewarrina,
800 km (497 miles) north-west of Sydney in this September 2002 file photo.
World water reserves are drying up fast and booming populations, pollution
and global warming will combine to cut the average person's water supply
by a third in the next 20 years, the United Nations says. REUTERS |
More than 2.2 million people die each year from diseases related to contaminated
drinking water and poor sanitation, the report said, but evidence of the problem
was being ignored.
POLITICS AND WATER
By 2050, water scarcity will affect between two billion and seven billion people
out of a projected total of 9.3 billion, depending on factors like population
growth and what measures political leaders take to tackle the crisis, the report
said.
"Attitude and behaviour problems lie at the heart of the crisis," it said.
"Inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the
scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective
actions."
Young said that in an era when enormous sums are spent on armaments, it would
not take much money to improve the situation.
"The difficulty is having the political will to do it," he said.
The report also touched on the threat of conflict over water, which Young said
was a concern in a number of regions but especially the Middle East.
One particular area of concern surrounds the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which
rise in Turkey and flow through Syria before providing much of the water
available to Iraq.
"Now, quite clearly, the water crisis or potential for conflict in that area is
totally overshadowed by the present situation," he said. "But that water crisis,
I'm sure, is one factor underlying the general politics of that area."
Despite the concern, Young said it is rare for water to lead to conflict, and
that negotiations over its use reach a peaceful solution more often than not.
BELGIUM WORST WATER PROVIDER
Billed as the most comprehensive survey of the state of the resource, the report
ranked 122 countries based on the quality of their water and their ability and
willingness to improve it.
Belgium was bottom of the league, below less developed countries including
India, Sudan and Rwanda, which also ranked among the world's 10 worst water
providers.
The report said Belgium's low quantity and quality of groundwater was combined
with heavy industrial pollution and poor treatment of wastewater. Top of the
quality ranking was Finland, followed by Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Japan.
The survey showcased the vast disparities in global water availability, which
ranged from a low of 10 cubic metres per person per year in Kuwait to a high of
812,121 cubic metres per person per year in French Guiana.
The poor remained the worst affected, with half the population in developing
countries exposed to water sources polluted by sewage or industrial waste.
The U.N. document will be presented formally to delegates at the Kyoto forum on
World Water Day on March 22. |
