Pardon the oxymoronic title but these last two years - the world and in particular developing countries - the poor and the vulnerable have been hit by both food and energy crises. Add water to this nightmare: a growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanization, dietary changes in emerging economies, rising transportation costs, blatant water privatization, increased bio-fuel production, incessant deforestation, climate change and regional droughts are all responsible. Dry water indeed.
I'm not sure which of the two issues is more pressing than the other: the incoming global food bubble (of which I will have a disturbing diary reporting food prices increases next week) or water scarcity. I am truly scared of what the future will bring. I have kids, as many of you do. What are we going to do when the water runs out? And why isn't this issue on the front burner?
The more I read about water and its dwindling reserves the more I realize how unprepared we are. Here's Dr. Peter H. Gleick's view:
That is a stark statistic, when as many as 5 million people die unnecessarily each year because of lack of water and water-related illnesses; one-third are under age 5.
You may want to check his website, Pacific Institute, he does stellar work in the field of water and sustainability. And, as the pic above shows, read his take on bottled water.
Water is among the five primordial elements considered to be vital for any type of life or vegetation on this planet. Great civilizations of the world grew and developed on the banks of big watercourses: may it be the grand Nile or the majestic Indus or other lakes and springs, water has been so vitally important that ancient inhabitants choose it as their first preference to settle nearby. People have fought for water rights, and still do, but the main question is that by 2025, nearly 2 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water shortage, where water resources per person fall well below the recommended level of 500 cubic meters per year (this is the amount of water a person needs for a healthy and hygienic living) so what's the back-up plan?
Let me rephrase it slightly: by 2025 or earlier, two thirds of the population will experience a severe shortage of water. The amount of water in the world is limited. The human race, and the other species which share this planet, cannot expect an infinite supply. The world is incurring a vast water deficit. It is largely invisible, historically recent, and growing fast.
We use about 70% of the water we have in agriculture. But the World Water Council believes that by 2020 we shall need 17% more water than is available if we are to feed the world. Meanwhile many countries suffer accelerating desertification. Water quality is deteriorating in many areas of the developing world as population increases and salinity caused by industrial farming and over-extraction rises. Exacerbating the problem, roughly 95 percent of the world's cities still dump raw sewage into their waters and as you know, poor water quality increases the risk of diarrhoeal diseases including cholera, typhoid fever, salmonellosis, other gastrointestinal viruses, and dysentery. Water scarcity may also lead to diseases such as trachoma, plague and typhus. I'm not trying to scare the living sh*t out of you but tell me this: where have you read or heard lately about this incoming catastrophe?
Do we wait until this headline hits us: Bangladesh deploy army as water crisis deepens or do we act?
As I wrote in my last water diary, the IMF & the World Bank are not necessarily on our side: not much is known about the impacts of the World Bank's privatization of water services but the Bolivian story is well documented. It seems that country after country in recent years, the World Bank has been quietly imposing a for-profit system of water delivery, leaving millions of people without access to water. And why? Well, insanity has caught up with reality. Water privatization is upon us, and unless we act, fast, you will be paying through the nose for every liter of water: one hundred years ago, if someone had told you that water will be sold in stores, under "premium" brand names for as much as $4 to $6 for a liter, you would have said that this person is insane.
Water rights are fiercely sought by a handful of Multinationals, you know the usual suspects, PepsiCo, Coke, Danone, Nestle etc...begging the question: are we going to end up as the pic below?