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{{B}}Shrinking Water Supply Poses Threat
to Peace{{/B}} "Water, which is essential for life, costs nothing. On the other hand, diamonds, which are essential for nothing, cost a lot." Unfortunately, the world has changed considerably since an 18th century economist made this remark. What was true over 200 years ago is certainly no longer true now, in a number of countries people pay as much for water in their homes as they do for electricity. Like health, we ignore water when we have it — unless there are floods, of course. Once there is a threat to our water supply, however, water can quickly become the only thing that matters. We know only too well that, without water, there can be no life. The situation is now becoming so bad that environmentalist feel it may be necessary to shock the world into saving water in a similar way to the shock caused by the oil crises in the 1970s. At that time, the oil crisis became such a serious threat to the lives of everyone in the developed countries that it made people conscious of the importance of saving oil and provided powerful encouragement for governments to look for other forms of energy. The result undoubtedly was of major benefit to energy conservation. There is now no longer and unlimited supply of fresh water. About 97 per cent of the planet's water is seawater. Another 2 per cent is locked in icecaps and glaciers. There are also reserves of fresh water under the earth's surface but these are too deep for us to use economically. Unfortunately, competition is growing fiercely for what little water is available. It may be a matter of time before that competition becomes a conflict. To make matters worse, the world's population is increasing so rapidly that it is expected to grow to about 8 billion in 30 years — an increase of 60 per cent. Moreover, in many developed countries throughout the would, flush lavatories and washing machines mean the average person now uses 300 litres of water a day compared with 50 at the beginning of the century. At the other extreme, according to the World Health Organization, one qu0rter of the world's population still lacks safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Most live in the southern hemisphere, where supplies of fresh water are put in jeopardy through dirty industrial practices, poor irrigation and erosion. The social stability of the world is no longer threatened by global wars, the Cold War, ... However, the supply of water could soon become the chief threat to such stability. There is already evidence of this happening, especially in Africa. Recently the Egyptian Government threatened 'to destroy any dams built on the Nile if they considered the dams would affect their supply of fresh water. What is required immediately is an awareness of the true value of water and the formation of sensible water conservation strategies. It is also of vital importance to have a consensus on how best to use shared Water resources for the benefit of all the countries in the world as well as an examination of the best methods for the distribution of the world's water. |