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Page added on March 14, 2012
World Water Forum: Water crisis is looming
The 6th annual World Water Forum began in Marseilles on Monday with a call to action to curb the looming global water crisis.
The 6th annual World Water Forum [5] began in the French port city of Marseilles on Monday with speeches and reports underscoring the need to curb the looming global water crisis, Reuters reported [6].
A United Nations report [7], released every three years in conjunction with the Forum, found that the world’s water supply is being strained by climate change and the demands of a fast-growing population. A European Environmental Agency (EEA) study [8] also highlighted the increased water scarcity in Europe. Both organizations called for radical shifts in policy implementation to conserve water.
“The critical thing for us is that we are seeing an increasing number of regions where river basins, because of climate change, are experiencing water scarcity,” said EEA executive director Jacqueline McGlade, BBC News reported [9]. “Yet behavioral change, and what that means, hasn’t really come about.”
More from GlobalPost: Water pollution from agriculture is worsening in California, new study says [10]
The UNESCO World Water report found that the demand from agriculture, which already uses around 70 percent of the world’s total freshwater supply, is likely to rise by at least 19 percent by 2050 as the global population jumps to 9 billion people, Reuters reported. Farmers will need to grow 70 percent more food by that time to accommodate a larger population.
“Climate change will drastically affect food production in South Asia and Southern Africa between now and 2030,” the UNESCO report said. “By 2070, water stress will also be felt in central and southern Europe.”
Asia is home to 60 percent of the world’s population but just a third of its total water resources, Singapore Today reported [11].
“The sense that I get from this event so far is that there’s a greater sense of urgency that the problems are looming and are going to become more acute in the future,” said Singapore’s Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
More from GlobalPost: UN meets access to drinking water goal ahead of schedule [12]
“Continuation of water consumption at 20th century rates is no longer possible,” said former Soviet president Mikhael Gorbachev, who founded the environmental NGO Green Cross International [13]. “The economy needs to be reoriented to goals that include public goods such as a sustainable environment, people’s health, education, culture and social cohesion.”
On Monday, seven water companies in England announced that they would be imposing hose-pipe bans starting in April, as unusually dry winters have left reservoirs, aquifers and rivers below normal water levels, BBC reported.
The EEA is also working on developing agricultural techniques, such as drip irrigation, that will conserve water more effectively, McGlade told the BBC.
“Once you have an economic interest in the use of a resource like water, then you can talk about wasteful use,” McGlade said.
The World Water Forum is an international summit held once every three years, and draws politicians, policymakers and NGOs from around the world. It will run until March 17.
4 Comments on "World Water Forum: Water crisis is looming"
BillT on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 3:15 am
You can live without oil…but you cannot live 4 days without water.
Colin Megson on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 12:03 pm
Obama – Cameron: “…..As two of the world’s wealthiest nations, we embrace our responsibility as leaders in the development that enables people to live in dignity, health and prosperity…..”
Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, launched the 6th World Water Forum this week, with an opinion on what needs to be provided for ‘people to live in dignity, health and prosperity’, when he said “…..first and foremost, energy and water so they can finally pull themselves out of poverty…..”
The developing world is now, and will be for a couple of decades to come, spending £billions or maybe £trillions on coal fired power stations. And who can blame them, with 40,000 people per day dying from preventable diseases, for the sake of affordable energy and potable water?
Coal fired power stations use and contaminate vast volumes of fresh water to cool the waste heat from the steam turbines used to generate electricity. This heat, containing nearly two thirds of the heat from the coal, is truly wasted.
In the 50s and 60s, whilst the UK trod a path to a nuclear technology dead end, the US Administration withdrew funding to technological development of Molten Salt Breeder Reactors (MSBRs) in what is surely the ‘Saddest Accident of History’ ( http://lftrsuk.blogspot.com/2012/03/follow-up-to-i… ) .
MSBRs, now known as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs), use gas turbines to drive the electrical generators and the ‘waste’ heat from these (just over half of what the reactor produces) is at a high enough temperature to desalinate water. So, nothing is ‘wasted’; huge volumes of potable water can be produces from brackish ground water or sea water – and the cost is NEXT TO NOTHING.
The Heads of State of the developing world must urgently liaise to get the first-of-a-kind LFTR up and running, for a piddling amount of money. This will get investment stimulated to the point that venture capitalists and fund managers are knocking the door down to get into the most essential technology of the 21st Century.
In the days of slide rules and compasses, when all machining and planning was done manually, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was funded in 1960, switched on in 1965 and ran for many thousands of full power hours until 1969. The MSRE was two thirds of what a LFTR is, so in these days of CAD/CAM, computerised 3D modelling and planning, with the right will, a LFTR could be ready for action in 5 years. Within not much more than a decade, we could have factory built, transportable modular units coming off production lines. Their safety is inherent and their ‘greenness’ unrivaled. See:http://lftrsuk.blogspot.com/p/benefits-of-lftrs.ht… .
Kenz300 on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 5:19 pm
Too many people and too few resources. Water crisis, oil crisis, financial crisis, climate change crisis, jobs crisis….. an over population crisis..
Every problem is made harder to solve with the worlds ever growing population.
BillT on Thu, 15th Mar 2012 1:34 am
Colin, you are dreaming…or smokin’ the good stuff. If there was an energy source out there that even had a chance, someone would be building it. Computers cannot change natural laws or limits or make something work that is impossible.