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The "World Water Actions" report is a participatory initiative conducted by the water community for the water community. By taking an inventory of the thousands of worldwide actions which affect the way water is managed, the report aims to raise awareness of solutions that are available to improve water resources management and anticipate emerging priorities which will serve as guidelines for future efforts. After
giving material for discussion in Stockholm and Johannesburg, the
World Water Actions report presents tentative messages regarding
what was done and what remains to be done to rise to the
challenges facing the water community worldwide.
Read
more
A shortage of
clean water is one of the most serious challenges facing the world
this millennium, according to the United Nations.
People in rich countries use 10 times more water than those in
poor countries.
Some argue privatisation is the best way to ensure everyone gets
access to clean water, but others argue that water should be
provided by the state.
And what happens when more than one country lay claim to the same
water? Will nations take up arms over water in the wars of the
future?
Do you live in a water-scarce region? How do you think this
most precious of resources should be managed?
Read a selection of comments
below.
The following comments reflect the balance of opinions:
Clive Graham Smale, Laoag City, Philippines
I live in an
area which has very definite wet and dry seasons. The monsoons set
in from June to September each year. We rely on artesian water which
generally lasts all through the dry season during which we see no
rain for up to 5 months. Each house has its own deep well but
commercially piped water is available. I think that this most
precious and basic of resources should be managed by the state,
exclusively. It cannot be privatised and left to the voracious
private sector for profit. The majority of countries affected by such shortages are governed
by corrupt regimes that can not be trusted to run a bath. Ploughing
money into their infrastructure is money down the drain.
Harry Webb, Broadstairs, UK
I live in the
South East of England and most of us are well aware of the problem
of managing water resources - both flood and drought. Whether or not
we can recall it, most of us have been advised at one time or
another as to how to conserve water. Unfortunately, Africans in
particular do not have our resources. Or do they? Why should Africa
be drought-ridden when it is surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian
oceans? If oil companies can build huge refineries and
trans-continental pipelines, then why can't they build huge
desalination plants and trans-continental pipelines? Problem solved.
There is enough water if it is equally shared. The IMF and the
World Bank should give loans or grants for water development
projects.
Peter Nelson, Boston, USA
Kenley
Donaldson complains that we don't think of water as "one great
whole". That's because it's not. How we use water in Massachusetts
will make no difference to people in Arizona or India. Attempts to
make suburbanites watering their lawns in developed nations feel
guilty because Ethiopians suffer from drought are ludicrous.
I am pretty fed up with having to answer for my way of life just
to justify it. I live in a society that is peaceful, pretty well
off, and resourceful. Why then am I being quizzed as to the
recourses of the Third World? The West has been putting trillions
into Africa which was used to enrich those in power and buy weapons.
This needs to stop so that the people of the continent can then
learn to help themselves!
Kenley Donaldson, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA
Water is
classified with adjectives such as renewable, ground or surface.
This disingenuous system supports the concept that this life-giving
liquid is not part of one great whole. Underwritten by the greedy
developer-government complex, the balance of natural life, farming
and family life is fractured. When will common sense and a spiritual
dimension of life triumph over greed? Here in Bermuda every house has to have its own water tank. Our
tank is just over 10,000 gallons. Mind you we get over 65 inches of
rain water a year. This is caught on the roofs and stored in the
tank below the house. If you run out, a water tanker will deliver
900 gallons for about $60 to $65 US dollars. I know that many
countries have little rainfall, but if they had ways of collecting
and storing it maybe this would help. Until recently, we lived outside Halifax, the capitol of Nova
Scotia. While we were there, we became very aware of water, its
availability and the likelihood of contamination. Most homes outside
the border of the city of Halifax drew their water from wells
situated on their own property. It was advisable to have your water
tested for contaminants, every year. From my experience of living in
Australia, California and Canada, I never take clean water for
granted.
C. Hunter, Bedford, England
People make far
too much of the "water wasting" issue. Wasted water is not
lost.
After going down your drain, soaking into your lawn, or whatever, it
rejoins the eco-system and is recycled naturally. The perceived
water shortage problem is caused by the fact that the people who are
short of water are not where the eco-system distributes it. That, I
fear, comes with living on a planet which has no sense of altruism
and doesn't care how thirsty you are. To Robi Neupane from Nepal: I was one of the authors of that
report. I am sure that it will be just the first of many, and that
they will improve over time. And I hope that, like the first
edition, they will all have a strong input from Nepal. Solving the
world's water crisis within 12 years needs about 20 billion USD a
year - about half of what Americans spend on pet food, or a third of
what Europeans spend on ice-cream. And do we know which country
spends least on its contributions to international development as a
percentage of GDP? It is a big country, often in the news.
Robi Neupane, Kathmandu The UN system
has just produced a World Water Development report. It was claimed
that this report is one of the most comprehensive documents on
water. As a citizen of one of the poorest countries in the world, I
want to know if this publication was a one off, soon-to-be forgotten
piece or will the UN produce similar reports in the future and keep
water at the top of the development agenda? < The human race continues to multiply and use up world resources.
Although it is water now, it will be something else later. As well
as education, we must do something to reduce the world population
Andrew Stamford, Australia
The problem
with technological options is that the ecological damage caused by,
for example, dam construction is considerable, most notably the
three gorges dam in China. And river diversions destroy entire
ecosystems, while desalination is not an effective option because of
the high energy input required to produce potable water. A great
emphasis should be placed on efficient water distribution and usage.
The city of Windhoek in Namibia, through necessity, recycles 100% of
their waste water with the minimal use of technology.
I live in a water-scarce island, Taiwan. It's natural land form
makes water it hard to collect. When there is not enough rainfall,
the government has to re-allocate clean water to ride out the
shortage of resources. In my opinion, the solution is to economise
on the use of natural resources. The answer is to fix the local resource problems, not worry about
how much water we use here. No-one is going to start shipping UK
water to Africa anytime soon. Let's get aid to these countries, but
not in cash that can be diverted. Why not just use our money on
water and sanitation projects for cities and towns that need them??
No grant and corruption, positive benefits. Can I remind people that water is never actually "used up". Have
you never heard of the water cycle? Watering lawns in the U.S. does
not cause drought in Africa. Please try to think it through before
you blame one country for totally unconnected problems elsewhere.
V S Narayanan, India No, we are not
doing enough. Instead of pointing fingers, we have to find solutions
in each community. India has always had a lopsided situation, in
that, if the monsoon is good, then the water situation is good and
this lasts until the summer drought sets in. Sri Visveraya, the well
known Bangalore architect, has advocated the linking of the rivers
in India to combat this. The Indian government is seriously thinking
about this but implementation is a long way off. India will face a
huge water crisis, sooner than later, if steps are not taken.
There are technological solutions. Research and development are
the answer. Look at Australia, surrounded by water and still
dependant on rainfall.
Robyn, Preston, England Having grown up
in drought conditions in South Africa, I was amazed upon arriving in
England to see how much waste goes on. Taps are left running
unnecessarily to give just one example. I think that people in
regions with an abundance of water need to be re-educated. Shock
tactics might be the only way. No, we are not. In 1964, despite new reservoirs, Hong Kong's 2
year drought led to water-rationing. Freighters, bringing water,
shuttled between Hong Kong and Japan for months, and people had to
walk long distances, bucket-in hand to the nearest stand-pipe. Now,
we get water (of sewage quality) from China. Southern California is
already under pressure, never mind the Middle East.
Edward Krzywdzinski, Australia
A great deal of
emphasis is placed on the human aspect of any water resource
problem. Yet, little attention is paid to the devastation caused in
the natural world by excessive water consumption. Other living
things need water to survive, and it is almost obscene to suggest
that the human population is above other life. There is very little
debate about overpopulation in the developing world and in the West.
It is the prime reason for water shortage. China labels the Tibetan plateau as the 'water tower', and a
number of projects are planned to exploit these water resources such
as the south-north water diversion project and the building of dams
on upper Mekong for hydropower. But do the poor nomads in Tibet have
adequate drinking water? I doubt it. Unless the world realise the
threat posed by China to our scarce water resources, nothing will be
done.
B.A Belal, Amman, Jordan We in the
Middle East, especially in Jordan, suffer from a shortage of clean
water. We depend totally on rainfall, and on the water that comes in
from other countries by way of assistance. We do not have rivers or
enough ground water resources. Desalination seems to be the
solution. Lack of water in the developing countries is partly a result of
the selfish behaviour of the economically "better off" northern
countries like the United States. Global warming, for example, leads
to higher temperatures which in turn reduces access to water in the
countries near the equator. The USA is one of the biggest, if not
the biggest, producer of carbon dioxide per capita.
Tah Ernest Mbuh, Bamenda, Cameroon
Water supply is
still a big problem in most of our rural areas in Cameroon where
most people live. In some parts, people don't realise that water is
a prime necessity for good health. Some of the rural areas are
fortunate to have enough streams and springs, but these in most
cases provide unclean water. In others, water is scarce and women or
children have to travel long distances to fetch water from rivers,
streams or springs. It would cost billions of francs to provide pipe
water to every village. China is finally doing something about its poor water
distribution problem. The new dam will provide flood control and a
reliable water source for centuries. The rest of the world should
learn from them and the Third World should stop wasting money on
corruption and military hardware and start spending it on public
works.
Charli, Australia The
water situation is far more serious than we'd like to admit and will
take more than platitudes from a couple of meetings to fix. Firstly,
we need to get real about cutting back on our appallingly wasteful
use of water. Secondly, we need to educate everyone, not just the
kids, about the consequences if we carry on at our current levels of
consumption. Thirdly, governments must take more responsibility for
the environment. The Murray River fiasco is a perfect example of
government reluctance to take action in time.
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This most precious and basic of
resources should be managed by the state
I