Yahoo – AFP,
Richard Ingham, 20 March 2015
 |
Residents
in Bangalore wait to collect drinking water in plastic pots
for their
households on March 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran)
|
Paris (AFP)
- Without reforms, the world will be plunged into a water crisis that could be
crippling for hot, dry countries, the United Nations warned Friday.
In an
annual report, the UN said abuse of water was now so great that on current
trends, the world will face a 40-percent "global water deficit" by
2030 -- the gap between demand for water and replenishment of it.
"The
fact is there is enough water to meet the world's needs, but not without
dramatically changing the way water is used, managed and shared," it said
in its annual World Water Development Report.
"Measurability,
monitoring and implementation" are urgently needed to make water use
sustainable, said Michel Jarraud, head of the agency UN-Water and the World
Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
 |
A boy
washes himself from a roadside
water tanker in Faridabad, a suburb of
New
Delhi, on March 18, 2015 (AFP
Photo/Money Sharma)
|
Surging
population growth is one of the biggest drivers behind the coming crisis, the
report said.
Earth's
current tally of around 7.3 billion humans is growing by about 80 million per
year, reaching a likely 9.1 billion by 2050.
To feed
these extra mouths, agriculture, which already accounts for around 70 percent
of all water withdrawals, will have to increase output by some 60 percent.
Climate
change -- which will alter when, where and how much rainfall comes our way --
and urbanisation will add to the coming crunch.
The report
pointed to a long list of present abuses, from contamination of water by
pesticides, industrial pollution and runoff from untreated sewage, to
over-exploitation, especially for irrigation.
More than
half of the world's population takes its drinking supplies from groundwater,
which also provides 43 percent of all water used for irrigation.
Around 20
percent of these aquifers are suffering from perilous over-extraction, the
report said.
So much
freshwater has been sucked from the spongy rock that subsidence, or saline
intrusion into freshwater in coastal areas, are often the result.
By 2050,
global demand for water is likely to rise by 55 percent, mainly in response to
urban growth.
"Cities
will have to go further or dig deeper to access water, or will have to depend
on innovative solutions or advanced technologies to meet their water
demands," the report said.
The
overview, scheduled for release in New Delhi, draws together data from 31
agencies in the United Nations system and 37 partners in UN-Water.
It placed
the spotlight on hot, dry and thirsty regions which are already struggling with
relentless demand.
In the
North China Plain, intensive irrigation has caused the water table to drop by
over 40 metres (130 feet) in some places, it said.
In India,
the number of so-called tube wells, pulling out groundwater, rose from less
than a million in 1960 to nearly 19 million 40 years later.
"This
technological revolution has played an important role in the country’s efforts
to combat poverty, but the ensuing development of irrigation has, in turn,
resulted in significant water stress in some regions of the country, such as
Maharashtra and Rajasthan," the report said.
Empty
taps and dry reservoirs
Water
expert Richard Connor, the report's lead author, said the outlook was bleak
indeed for some areas.
"Parts
of China, India and the United States, as well as in the Middle East, have been
relying on the unsustainable extraction of groundwater to meet existing water
demands," he told AFP.
"In my
personal opinion this is, at best, a short-sighted Plan B. As these groundwater
resources become depleted, there will no Plan C, and some of these areas may
indeed become uninhabitable."
 |
A migrant
labourer carries a bottle of water he filled from a water tanker
in a camp in
New Delhi on March 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Roberto Schmidt)
|
Last year,
the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated
that around 80 percent of the world's population "already suffers serious
threats to its water security, as measured by indicators including water
availability, water demand and pollution."
"Climate
change can alter the availability of water and therefore threaten water
security," the IPCC said.
Fixing the
problems -- and addressing the needs of the 748 million people without
"improved" drinking water and the 2.5 billion without mains sewerage
-- requires smart and responsive governance, the new UN report said.
In real
terms, this means putting together rules and incentives to curb waste, punish
pollution, encourage innovation and nurture habitats that provide havens for
biodiversity and water for humans.
It also
means learning to defuse potential conflicts as various groups jockey for a
precious and dwindling resource.
Tough
decisions will have to be made on pricing, and on rallying people together.
"Present
water tariffs are commonly far too low to actually limit excessive water use by
wealthy households or industry," the report observed.
But it
added, "responsible use may at times be more effectively fostered through
awareness-raising and appealing to the common good."
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 4 - Energy (again)
The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!
Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much.
Water
We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet.
There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four. ….”
“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.
It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.
So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.
Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”
