Water: The World’s #1 Security and Health Concern

By Zachary Shahan, Ecoworldly

Water scarcity resulting from climate change is the number one issue the world will have to grapple with in the future, according to chief climate scientist and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri.

On the one hand, we will have more water around us with sea level rising. Drought caused by climate change, on the other hand, will leave billions of people without clean water.

Speaking yesterday at the 2009 Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, Pachauri said: “At one level the world’s water is like the world’s wealth. Globally, there is more than enough to go round. The problem is that some countries get a lot more than others.”

Pachauri went on to describe the global imbalances in short detail. “With 31 percent of global freshwater resources, Latin America has 12 times more water per person than South Asia. Some places, such as Brazil and Canada, get far more water than they can use; others, such as countries in the Middle East, get much less than they need.”

Countries around the world share water resources. As these resources disappear, huge peace and security problems could arise. Pachauri said: “Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to trans-boundary tensions.”

Read full article

Source: ecoworldly.com

Jessica Biel Joins Celebrities In Scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro For Clean Water

Jessica Biel has announced that she will be joining Isabel Lucas and Lupe Fiasco in scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro this January to help raise awareness for clean water. The expedition is the brainchild of singer and producer Kenna; whose own father suffered from waterborne diseases as a child in Ethiopia.

Back in April, it was Biel’s boyfriend, singer Justin Timberlake, who first announced the project in an interview with GQ. “I’ve been training four times a week to get my VO2 [oxygen consumption] levels up to expand my lungs,” Timberlake said. “We’ll climb for a week straight, carrying 30 pounds on our backs. It’s going to be intense.” Unless something has changed, we assume he’s still connected with the effort — but representatives for the campaign are reportedly not confirming anything one way or another.

Said Biel in a statement announcing her participation, “This is a basic human necessity that needs to be addressed now. I’m proud to help any way I can in order to raise awareness toward the life-threatening clean water crisis happening not only in Africa but around the world.”

Apparently, more celebrities are set to be announced in the coming weeks. You can check out the slick official site for the “Summit on the Summit” campaign — and get involved – by clicking here.

Source: www.ecorazzi.com

Water Crisis Uproots Syrian Farmers

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

SHAIZAR CASTLE, Syria (Reuters) – Only a few decades ago, fish were plentiful in the Orontes river which for thousands of years has provided water to the lush Syrian plains, at the crossroads of the ancient world.

These days the Orontes’s 12th century norias, enormous water wheels famous for their distinctive creak, barely turn in the weak tides. Algae covers the river’s surface and the desert has been closing in.

“The river has become so polluted. The quality of our produce has suffered and there is barely enough now to feed my family,” said 80-year-old farmer Mohammad al-Hamdo.

Syria’s worst drought in decades has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and raised calls for a coordinated water policy for the Middle East as the region faces a dryer climate and water supplies depleted by damming and water well drilling.

Yet whether a coordinated water policy is even possible is in doubt in a region riven by tensions and rivalry and where water politics is often seen as a zero-sum game.

The Euphrates River, which flows from Turkey through Syria and Iraq, is polluted and salinized. Damming by Turkey and demands for water by ballooning populations have drastically reduced its flow.

Mohammed Okla is among an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Syrian farmers and their families who in the past three years have been forced to abandon their land due to drought, according to a recent United Nations study.

“I lost two-third of my cattle after the water wells dried up,” said Okla, who fled the badly-hit eastern Hasaka province five months ago and now lives in a tent with his two wives and 15 children next to the main garbage dump in Damascus.

Okla’s family have turned from wheat and cattle farmers into virtual refugees. Flies cover the faces of his barefooted children who play among scraps of metal and trash pulled from the dump as substitute toys

A recent United Nations study said the drought now covers over 60 percent of Syria’s land mass and 1.3 million people have been affected so far, with regions around Damascus, Aleppo and Hamah receiving the bulk of the displaced.

Read full article

Source: Reuters

Rising Tension Over Nile Water

CAIRO (AP) — Ministers from the 10 African countries on the Nile river began crucial discussions Monday over drafting a new water sharing agreement, which is hampered by Egypt’s refusal to reduce its share of world’s longest river.

In an opening address to the Nile Basin Initiative, held in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged for a “return of the cooperation and harmony” among the group’s members, describing the ongoing dispute as a “misunderstanding.”

In the two-day meeting, participants are hoping to conclude the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement, which establishes a permanent body to oversee water allocation along the Nile.

During talks last month in Kinshasa, Congo, officials from the 10 countries of the Nile basin, failed to agree over a new system of water sharing desired by a majority of the members.

A 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, set up the original sharing framework and gave Cairo the right to veto upstream projects.

In a 1959 agreement with Sudan, Egypt was awarded an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water, the largest share of any country along the river.

The remaining eight riparian states resent Egypt’s quota and want to draft a new agreement. The other Nile basin countries are Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi.

Read full article

Source: Sun-Sentinel

Australian Town Bans Bottled Water

By Meraiah Foley, New York Times

BUNDANOON, AUSTRALIA — When the residents of Bundanoon voted last week to stop selling bottled water in town, they never expected to be thrust into the global spotlight.

With a nearly unanimous show of hands at a community meeting on July 8, locals in this tourist town touched off a worldwide debate about the social and environmental effects of bottled water that has put the beverage industry on the defensive.

State and local officials across the United States have been phasing out the use of bottled water at government workplaces in recent years, citing a range of concerns including the energy used to make and transport the bottles and an erosion of public trust in municipal water supplies. But as far as campaigners are aware, Bundanoon is the first town in the world to stop all sales of bottled water.

Set in the cool highlands southwest of Sydney, Bundanoon is a sleepy village of tidy gardens and quaint cottages surrounded by the weekend estates of wealthy urbanites. It is the sort of place where strangers strike up conversations on park benches along the picturesque main street and townsfolk leave fresh flowers on the local war memorial.

According to Huw Kingston, the owner of Ye Olde Bicycle Shoppe and a leader of the “Bundy on Tap” campaign, the ban did not begin as an environmental crusade. It started when a Sydney-based bottling company sought permission to extract millions of liters from the local aquifer.

At first, residents were upset at the prospect of tanker trucks rumbling through their quiet streets. But as opposition grew, Mr. Kingston said many began to question the “bizarre” notion of trucking water some 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, north to a plant in Sydney, only to transport it somewhere else — possibly even back to Bundanoon — for sale.

“We became aware, as a community, of what the bottled water industry was all about,” said Mr. Kingston. “So the idea was floated that if we don’t want an extraction plant in our town, maybe we shouldn’t be selling the end product at all.”

A dozen or so activists got together and called a community meeting. Of the 356 locals who turned out to vote by a show of hands, only one objected.

The ban is entirely voluntary. But with the support of the public, the town’s six food retailers have agreed to pull bottled water from their shelves starting in September. They plan to recoup their losses by selling inexpensive, reusable bottles that can be filled at drinking fountains and filtered water dispensers to be placed around town.

Some of the town’s 2,500 residents say they support the plan because they worry about the effects of chemicals in plastic bottles; some view it as a positive demonstration against the water plant. Others, however, are skeptical that the cash-strapped local council will be able to maintain the new drinking fountains. And others worry about the health implications of leaving only sweetened alternatives on refrigerator shelves.

Read full article

Source: New York Times

Matt Damon Joins the Water Cause

Celebrity is a kind of capital. If you’re famous, and especially if you’re sexy and famous, your name easily brings money and media attention of the sort other nonprofits struggle to obtain to your chosen charity.

The sexy, famous, and talented Mr. Damon has used his celebrity to advance causes linked to poverty, which has led him to an interest in safe drinking water.

Today, Matt Damon announced a merger of an organization he co-founded, H2O Africa, with the global group WaterPartners to form Water.org.

Damon’s role is largely ceremonial, with the former director of WaterPartners, Gary White, staying on to head up Water.org. Damon explained, “As a clear leader in the sector at delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for those in need, WaterPartners was the natural choice with whom to work to truly affect lasting change.”

As for his interest in water? “Every 15 seconds,” Damon says, “a child in the developing world dies from water-related disease.” Indeed, the new group’s website says a billion people are without safe water.

Read full article

Source: San Francisco Gate

Water is a Human Right

As scientists warn that the world’s fresh water supplies will soon run critically short, and companies scramble to privatize them, some researchers and activists say water should be considered a basic human right.

“Access to clean water, which is essential for health, is under threat,” write the editors of Public Library of Science Medicine in an essay published Monday.

In terms of intellectual coherency, the idea passes muster. Water’s just as essential to life as food, which makes an appearance in Article 25 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As of now, the World Health Organization estimates that inadequate water is responsible for nearly one-tenth of the world’s disease burden, and that six percent of all deaths could be prevented by universal access to safe drinking water and better sanitation.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to declare a right than to enforce it. Despite the UN’s pledge to end hunger, nearly a billion people don’t have enough to eat. And the UN’s promise to halve the number of water-impoverished people by 2015 has a snowball’s chance in the Sahara of being met. But as the PLoS Medicine editors point out, recognizing water as a human right would at least provide a framework for dealing with water privatization.

Over the last 20 years, with the help of the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, water has become a $500 billion global industry dominated by just three companies. According to reports published by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch, it’s been a disaster in both the United States and the developing world.

“This model has proven to be a failure,” wrote Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water issues to the UN General Assembly’s president, in an essay published last year. “High water rates, cut-offs to the poor, reduced services, broken promises and pollution have been the legacy of privatization.”

According to the UN, 2.8 billion people won’t have enough water to meet their basic needs by 2025.

“A human rights approach to water recognizes the potential for inequity and ensures that the most vulnerable are not ignored,” write the editors.

Read original article

Source: Wired Science

Violent Protesters Disrupt World Water Conference

Several hundred stone-throwing protesters disrupted the opening of the World Water Forum, an international gathering in Istanbul designed to address the growing demand for fresh water, and to find ways to avert conflicts over the limited resource. Outside the meeting riot police clashed with stick-wielding protesters, eventually using tear gas and water cannons to break up the protest. The police also arrested 17 activists who tried to enter the meeting hall.

The need for new environmental policies was highlighted last week when the United Nations warned that nearly half of the world’s people will live in areas with acute water shortages by 2030. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said water scarcity is a “potent fuel for wars and conflict.” Water shortages have been named as a major underlying cause of the conflict in Darfur in western Sudan. Water is also a major issue between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the states of Central Asia, one of the world’s driest places, where thirsty crops such as cotton and grain remain the main source of livelihood [Reuters].

But the protesters denounced the meeting as a front for multinational companies seeking profits and promoting privatisation…. They say that the council, aided by the World Bank, has driven projects that have raised water costs and worsened scarcities in the developing world [The Guardian].

Chile has provided the starkest example of how water privatization can leave poor citizens without access to the vital resource, as water resources are considered private property in Chile and can be traded with little government oversight. Private ownership is so concentrated in some areas that a single electricity company from Spain, Endesa, has bought up 80 percent of the water rights in a huge region in the south, causing an uproar. In the north, agricultural producers are competing with mining companies to siphon off rivers and tap scarce water supplies, leaving towns like [Quillagua] bone dry and withering. “Everything, it seems, is against us,” said Bartolomé Vicentelo, 79, who once grew crops and fished for shrimp in the Loa River that fed Quillagua [The New York Times].

Article Source:  Discover Magazine Blogs

Jordan Complains of Syrian Water Mismanagement

The Media Line- April 27, 2009
For the second time in less than a month, Jordanian officials will complain to Syria over the usage of the water from the Yarmouk River, which, according to Jordanian officials quoted by the Jordan Times, constitutes a violation of signed agreements.

The Jordanians are upset that Syria is allowing water from the river to be used in farming on the Syrian side, which has decreased the amount of water available for cultivation of crops in Jordan, and the amount of water that is stored in vital dams, the paper reported.

Under the agreement signed between the two countries, Syria’s share of water from the Wahda Dam, which is built on the river, is 21 billion cubic feet (bcf) for agricultural purposes, provided that the dam operates at full capacity of 3,850 billion bcf.

For the first time since the dam was completed two years ago, it holds only one fifth of its total capacity and thus the Syrian share would be lowered to 3.5 billion bcf. But according to the Jordanians, Syria is now pumping more that its allocated share of water.

The Yarmouk River is an offshoot of the Jordan River, originating in the Golan Heights and forming a boundary between Syria and Jordan for some 24 miles before becoming the border between Jordan and Israel.

Jordan is one of the 10 most water-deficient countries in the world, and 92 percent of the country is desert. It is estimated that some 65% of the country’s water resources are used for agriculture, which only contributes 3% of the country’s gross domestic production.

Read original article

Source:  The Media Line

U.N. report predicts worsening freshwater supplies

Population growth, climate change and demand for greater food and energy supplies are squeezing global water supplies, according to a new U.N. report.

Water problems are often worst in developing countries, where water availability and prosperity are closely linked, says the report produced by 24 U.N. agencies and scheduled for official release tomorrow.

The report warns that mismanagement of water supplies has created problems that are “enormous … but not insurmountable” — if major policy shifts are made.

“Water is linked to the crises of climate change, energy and food supplies and prices, and troubled financial markets,” the report says. “Unless their links with water are addressed and water crises around the world are resolved, these other crises may intensify and local water crises may worsen, converging into a global water crisis and leading to political insecurity and conflict at various levels.”

A major factor affecting water availability is a surging global population, which the United Nations says could swell from 6.7 billion in 2008 to 9 billion by 2050.

And more and more of those people are living in urban areas, with much of that shift occuring in the poorest countries. That forces governments to rely on rivers and aquifers polluted by growing human settlements.

“Coping with a future without reliable water resource systems is now a real prospect in parts of the world,” the report warns.

Read full article

Source: The New York Times

Next Page »