Looming Water Crisis IS the WORLD RUNNING out of WATER?
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FEBRUARY 2008 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2 PAGES 27-56 WWW.GLOBALRESEARCHER.COM Looming Water Crisis IS THE WORLD RUNNING OUT OF WATER? n the past decade drought has marched across much of the globe, hitting China, the Mediterranean, south- east Australia and the U.S. Sun Belt. The amount of water used by humans has tripled since 1950, and irri- gated cropland has doubled. About one-fifth of the world’s population lacks sufficient water, a figure that could reach 40 percent by 2025 by some estimates, in part because of growing world economies. In the Ipoorest societies more than a billion people lack access to clean water, and dirty water kills 5,000 children — enough to fill 12 jumbo jets — every day. By century’s end drought is expected to spread across half the Earth’s land surface due to climate change, causing hunger and higher food prices. The United Nations says it would cost an extra $10 billion or more annually to provide clean water and sanitation for all. Some recommend privatizing water supplies, while others suggest that charging more for water to encourage conservation would help to avoid future crises. Children play in the dried up bed of the Jialing River near the booming city of Chongqing in central China. The country’s worst drought in a half-century prompted Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to warn that the crisis threatens “the survival of the Chinese nation.” PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, A DIVISION OF CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. WWW.CQPRESS.COM LOOMING WATER CRISIS THE ISSUES Water Consumption Varies 31 Americans use the most. • Are we running out of 29 water? Sanitation and Water Access February 2008 • Should water be priva- 32 Improves Worldwide Volume 2, Number 2 tized? But access is still limited. MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch • Will water scarcity lead [email protected] to conflicts? Irrigation Doubled in 35 Developing Nations CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin BACKGROUND But rate of increase is slowing. [email protected] CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, Taming Water 37 Mountain Snowpack Is Peter Behr, Roland Flamini, Sarah Glazer, 38 The 20th century was the Shrinking Samuel Loewenberg, Colin Woodard heyday of dam building. Melting threatens crucial, replenishing water flows. DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Regulating Water ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa China Leads in Dam 42 Ancient codes established WEB EDITOR: Andrew Boney 38 Building water-sharing rules. It has three times as many dams as the U.S. Misusing Water 43 Dirty water kills nearly Chronology 2 million children a year. 39 Key events since 1848. Ocean Waters Empowering Women May A Division of 45 Desalination is growing 40 Quench Thirst Congressional Quarterly Inc. but expensive. ‘Should girls be kept home SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER: from school to collect water?’ John A. Jenkins CURRENT SITUATION Water Schemes Range DIRECTOR, LIBRARY PUBLISHING: 44 from Monumental to Zany Alix Buffon Vance Melting Snows Many are controversial. CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. 45 Shrinking snowpack indi- CHAIRMAN: Paul C. Tash cates climate change may 47 At Issue already affect scarcity. Should water be privatized? VICE CHAIRMAN: Andrew P. Corty PRESIDENT/EDITOR IN CHIEF: Robert W. Merry Wasted Water 56 Voices From Abroad 48 Headlines and editorials from Copyright © 2008 CQ Press, a division of A water-conservation ethic around the world. is emerging. Congressional Quarterly Inc. (CQ). CQ re- serves all copyright and other rights herein, FOR FURTHER RESEARCH unless previously specified in writing. No part OUTLOOK of this publication may be reproduced elec- tronically or otherwise, without prior written For More Information permission. Unauthorized reproduction or Thirst and Hunger 53 Organizations to contact. 48 As water demand outstrips transmission of CQ copyrighted material is a supply, both water and Bibliography violation of federal law carrying civil fines of food prices will rise. 54 Selected sources used. up to $100,000. CQ Global Researcher is published monthly 55 The Next Step online in PDF and HTML format by CQ SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Additional articles. Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc. Annual full-service electronic subscrip- Water Scarcity Projected Citing CQ Global Researcher tions start at $500. For pricing, call 1-800- 55 Sample bibliography formats. 30 for Many Regions 834-9020, ext. 1906. To purchase CQ Glob- China and the U.S. face big al Researcher electronic rights, visit www. changes. cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Cover: AP Photo/Color China Photo 28 CQ Global Researcher Looming Water Crisis BY PETER BEHR While drought and ex- panding populations visibly THE ISSUES affect the world’s lakes and s 2007 came to a close, rivers, a less-visible problem the steady drumbeat also threatens water supplies. A of headlines about Accelerated pumping of China’s worst drought in a groundwater for irrigation is half-century affirmed Prime depleting underground Minister Wen Jiabao’s earlier aquifers faster than they can warning that the crisis threat- be refreshed in densely pop- ens “the survival of the Chi- ulated areas of North China, nese nation.” 1 India and Mexico. And land The alarming develop- and water resources there and ments included: beyond are being degraded • The drying up of 133 through erosion, pollution, reservoirs in burgeoning salination, nutrient depletion Guangdong Province, and seawater intrusion, ac- leaving a quarter of a cording to the institute. million people facing A United Nations task force water shortages. 2 on water predicted that by • The lowest levels since 2025, 3 billion people will 1866 on portions of the face “water stress” conditions, Yangtze River, restricting lacking enough water to meet barge and ship traffic and all human and environmen- reducing hydroelectric tal needs. 8 By that time, there output on China’s largest will be 63 major river basins river, even as pollution AFP/Getty Images/Simon Maina with populations of at least from 9,000 industrial Kenyan children play in raw sewage in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest 10 million, of which 47 are slum. Each year 1.8 million children — 5,000 a day — plants along its course die from waterborne illnesses due to a lack of either already water-stressed, jeopardizes drinking access to sanitation and clean water. will become stressed or will water supplies. 3 experience a significant de- • Near-record low levels in vast many places, particularly in the poor- terioration in water supply, according Lake Poyang, restricting water sup- est nations. But despite an unending to a separate study by the World Re- plies for 100,000 people. 4 series of international water conferences sources Institute incorporating the “My house used to be by the side — attended by thousands of experts U.N. data. 9 (See map, p. 30.) * of the lake,” villager Yu Wenchang told — no consensus has emerged on how As water depletion accelerates, the Xinhua News Agency. “Now I have to make adequate clean water available drought is undermining nature’s ca- to go over a dozen kilometers away to all people in affordable, environ- pacity to replenish this essential re- to get to the lake water.” 5 mentally sustainable ways. 6 source, punishing the planet’s mid- Similar woes are being reported across A fifth of the world’s population — section — from eastern Australia and the globe, as one of the worst decades 1.2 billion people — live in areas ex- northern China through the Middle of drought on record afflicts rich and periencing “physical water scarcity,” or East and sub-Saharan Africa to the poor nations alike. While scientists hedge insufficient supplies for everyone’s de- U.S. Sun Belt, the Great Plains and their conclusions about whether long- mands, according to a 2006 study by northern Mexico. term climate change is causing the dry the International Water Management spell, many warn that Earth’s gradual Institute that draws on the work of * “Water stress” occurs when less than 1,700 warming trend unquestionably poses a 700 scientists and experts. Another 1 cubic meters (448,000 gallons) per person of growing threat to water supplies and billion face “economic scarcity,” in new fresh water is available annually from food production in arid regions. Already, which “human capacity or financial re- rainfall or aquifers for human use, making population growth and economic ex- sources” cannot provide adequate water, populations vulnerable to frequent interrup- pansion are straining water supplies in the report found. 7 tions in water supply. Available online: www.globalresearcher.com February 2008 29 LOOMING WATER CRISIS Serious Shortages Projected for Many Regions Water shortages are expected to afflict much of the Earth by 2025, as growing populations use vastly more water for daily life and farming. Areas likely to be hardest hit include China, Western Europe, the United States, Mexico and a wide swath of the globe’s midsection from India to North Africa. In the most severe cases, humans are expected to use up to 40 percent of the available water, compared with the current average withdrawal, or use, rate, of 10 percent. Projected Water-Use Rates, 2025 * Water Withdrawal as Percentage of Total Available More than 40% 20% to 40% 10% to 20% Less than 10% * Based on data from 1996-2000 Source: World Meteorological Organisation, Global Environment Outlook, U.N. Environment Programme, Earthscan, www.unep.org/dewa/assessments/ecosystems/water/vitalwater/21.htm#21b In the United States, chronic climate change are felt, many scien- ern public water systems are designed alarms over depleted water resources tists warn. 11 Climate change is ex- to protect users from biological agents in the Southwestern states have pected to expand and intensify drought and toxins, but deliberate contamina- spread to the Southeast. The water in traditionally dry regions and disrupt tion by terrorists could kill or sicken level in giant Lake Sidney Lanier water flows from the world’s moun- thousands, he said.