Water is a Precious Threatened Resource

James Laughlin, Editor WATERWORLD

As utilities in the U.S. and around the world make plans for rehabilitating and expanding their infrastructure, a variety of organizations are sounding an alarm that dwindling fresh water supplies are threatening the health and living standards of millions of people in a growing number of countries.

Most countries need massive investments in sanitation and water supply infrastructure just to provide basic services to their citizens.  The World Bank has estimated that over the next decade, between $600 billion and $800 billion must be invested to meet the total demand for freshwater including sanitation, irrigation, and power generations.

While the World Bank and similar organizations will provide some of the funding, most will have to come from a combination of public funding and private investment. It will be difficult or impossible for most developing countries to finance the needed infrastructure improvements. In Latin America alone it is estimated that $100 billion needs to be invested in water resources management and infrastructure over the next two decades.

Spreading water shortages threaten to reduce the global food supply by more than 10 percent. Left unaddressed, these shortages could lead to hunger, civil unrest, and even wars over water, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Water tables are dropping steadily in several major food producing regions as groundwater is pumped faster than nature replenishes it. The world’s farmers are racking up an annual water deficit of some 160 billion cubic meters – the amount used to produce 10 percent of the world’s grain.

So much water is being diverted for irrigation and other human uses that many major rivers now run dry for portions of the year, including the Yellow River in China, the Indus in Pakistan, the Ganges in South Asia, and the Colorado River in the U.S.

Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water.

While many regions of the world have ample freshwater, four out of every 10 people live in river basins which are experiencing water scarcity. By 2025, at least 3.5 billion people or nearly 50 percent of the world’s population will face water scarcity, according to the World Resources Institute.

In addition, 29 of the world’s river basins - with a projected population of 10 million each by 2025 – will experience further scarcity.

In the United States, which has the most comprehensive data on freshwater species, 67 percent of mussels, 51 percent of crayfish and 40 percent of amphibians are threatened or have become extinct.

“The findings are very disturbing,” said Jonathan Lash, WRI president during a press conference at the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists. “We essentially gave the world’s freshwater systems a physical exam and found out that they are more imperiled than the other ecosystems we studied.”

According to the group’s report, “Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE): Freshwater Systems,” much of the degradation of the world’s freshwater systems is due to the construction of dams and canals, pollution, and over-exploitation.

The report said that water-borne diseases from fecal pollution of surface waters continue to be a major cause of illness in the Third World. While surface water quality has improved in the United States and Western Europe, nutrient loading from agricultural runoff continues to be a major problem.

Although rivers, lakes and wetlands contain only 0.01 percent of the world’s freshwater, and occupy less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface, the global value of freshwater services is estimated in the trillions of dollars.

“We need to value freshwater ecosystems not only from the goods they produce, like fish and clams, but also the services they give, like the filters and nurseries that wetlands provide,” said Carmen Revenga, one of the report s’ co-author.

In water-short countries, national governments need to give water resources management their highest priority. All countries need to adopt watershed management strategies designed to protect and preserve their individual watershed management plan should actively involve communities and have broad public acceptance.

Perhaps more than anything, education is the key. People need to be aware of the concerns about water and make their own commitment to making a difference.

Published WATERWORLD, December 2000