World faces new threats of water scarcity
Water scarcity: The physical availability of water is being
endangered by a rash of new threats, including climate change, increase
in global population and the sudden growth of the water-hungry
bio-energy sector.
Addressing the 17th annual World Water Week, executive director of
the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Anders Berntell
warned that 1.4 billion people now live in regions where there is a
real, physical water scarcity, and an additional 1.1 billion live in
regions where there is water stress due to over-consumption. "Clearly,
these figures will increase in the future, due to population growth,
intensified agriculture and climate change," he told a meeting of over
2,000 water professionals, technicians, scientists and policy makers.
The annual five-day meeting, to conclude Friday, is described as the
world's largest single gathering of water experts, including officials
from more than 150 organizations. "We are not prepared to deal with the
implications this has for our planet. There is a security component in
this that is not fully understood or addressed
internationally yet." "And I am not talking about water security," he
said.
"I mean political security." Berntell blamed both international aid
donors and governments for their skewed priorities on development
spending - with water and sanitation getting the least. He contrasted
this with the phenomenal 37 percent increase in military expenditures
globally during 1997-2006, reaching close to one trillion dollars
annually. "When we look at these figures, I think it is time that we ask
ourselves 'Why?'.
Why don't governments in developing countries, donor agencies and
financiers prioritize water higher? Why are other issues, other sectors
higher on the political agenda?" he asked.
In a report released here, the London-based WaterAid has blamed
international donors for undermining the development priorities of
recipient countries. "If donors are serious about achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they must balance their investments
more evenly across all the essential services: water, sanitation, health
and education."
Besides a proposed 50-percent reduction of poverty and hunger by the
year 2015, the MDGs, agreed at the 2000 United Nations Millennium
Summit, also include universal primary education; promotion of gender
equality; reduction of child mortality and maternal mortality; combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental
sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for
development.
WaterAid has called for "urgent changes to the aid system to ensure
that donor policy responds to the needs of the poor and tackles the most
critical obstacles to development."
The study, titled "How the aid system is undermining the Millennium
Development Goals", says progress in health and education is dependent
on access to affordable sanitation and safe water. "And yet both donors
and developing country governments have failed to recognize the
interrelationship between health, education, water and sanitation," says
WaterAid. Global aid spending on health and education, the study notes,
has nearly doubled since 1990 while the share allocated to water and
sanitation has contracted.
There are many possible explanations for the marginalization of the
sector, the study points out.
"The sector is certainly more complex than health or education, with
responsibility often split across several ministries." Addressing the
meeting Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the vital
truth is "if there is no water, there is no life."
Today, more than one billion people are said to lack access to safe
drinking water and more than 2.4 billion lack access to basic
sanitation.
Every day, he said, "we see around 34,000 people die in diseases
related to deficient water and sanitation." "I don't think that anyone
on our planet can stand untouched by these facts.
The question is: what can we do?" The 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, agreed on an
ambitious goal: that by 2015 the number of people without access to
drinking water and essential sanitation should be cut in half. Between
1990 and 2002, there were some positive results.
The number of people with access to safe water rose, from 71 percent
to 79 percent. "If this development continues," the Swedish prime
minister predicted, "the goal can be achieved when we write 2015." But
the bad news, he said, is that the goals of essential sanitation are
lagging far behind. "If we see to Africa and several countries in Asia,
the future is especially dark."
Reinfeldt
singled out his own country as having a long tradition of giving
priority to water within the framework of its foreign aid budget. He
said Sweden has continued to provide strong support to the UN
Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) - three important actors in the
international fields of water and sanitation.
He pointed out that Sweden has also given specific support to
platforms where the water issue can be discussed and where actors can
meet to change points of views or share scientific results.
The World Water Week is one good example, as well as its organizer,
the Stockholm International Water Institute.
Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency |