Oil wars bad? Wait until the water wars start

Water wars will be the greatest threat to human kind and world peace.
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Water Crisis to Deepen as Supplies Dry Out - U.N.
March 5 ?- By Joelle Diderich and Elaine Lies - Reuters

PARIS/TOKYO (Reuters) - World water reserves are drying up fast and booming populations, pollution and global warming will combine to cut the average person's water supply by a third in the next 20 years, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

A report published by the U.N. on Wednesday ahead of the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, from March 16 to 23, criticized political leaders for failing to take action and, in some cases, disputing the very existence of a water crisis.

"About 20 percent of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, which we take for granted," said Gordon Young, director of the World Water Assessment Program at UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, which compiled the report.

"There is not sufficient water for adequate sanitation and hygiene for about 40 percent of the world's population," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "It is an absolute tragedy."

Water supplies per capita have fallen dramatically since 1970 and are set to continue declining, the report found.

More than 2.2 million people die each year from diseases related to contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation, the report said, but evidence of the problem was being ignored.

POLITICS AND WATER

By 2050, water scarcity will affect between two billion and seven billion people out of a projected total of 9.3 billion, depending on factors like population growth and what measures political leaders take to tackle the crisis, the report said.

"Attitude and behavior problems lie at the heart of the crisis," it said. "Inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective actions."

Young said that in an era when enormous sums are spent on armaments, it would not take much money to improve the situation.

"The difficulty is having the political will to do it," he said.

The report also touched on the threat of conflict over water, which Young said was a concern in a number of regions but especially the Middle East.

One particular area of concern surrounds the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which rise in Turkey and flow through Syria before providing much of the water available to Iraq.

"Now, quite clearly, the water crisis or potential for conflict in that area is totally overshadowed by the present situation," he said. "But that water crisis, I'm sure, is one factor underlying the general politics of that area."

Despite the concern, Young said it is rare for water to lead to conflict, and that negotiations over its use reach a peaceful solution more often than not.

BELGIUM WORST WATER PROVIDER

Billed as the most comprehensive survey of the state of the resource, the report ranked 122 countries based on the quality of their water and their ability and willingness to improve it.

Belgium was bottom of the league, below less developed countries including India, Sudan and Rwanda, which also ranked among the world's 10 worst water providers.

The report said Belgium's low quantity and quality of groundwater was combined with heavy industrial pollution and poor treatment of wastewater. Top of the quality ranking was Finland, followed by Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Japan.

The survey showcased the vast disparities in global water availability, which ranged from a low of 10 cubic meters per person per year in Kuwait to a high of 812,121 cubic meters per person per year in French Guiana.

The poor remained the worst affected, with half the population in developing countries exposed to water sources polluted by sewage or industrial waste.

The U.N. document will be presented formally to delegates at the Kyoto forum on World Water Day on March 22.
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