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Water — the Precious Natural Resource Abused

In the atmosphere, on the Earth's surface, in the soil and in the rocks beneath the soil, life is sustained and nurtured by water
Recycling is old hat tn the water business. Thals are drinking the same water that the Laotians, Cambodians. Vietnamese and Chinese have already quaffed and then swilled down the Mekong River.
The water one drink* today may contain water molecules that were part of the soup of Genghis Khan, or which may have helped quench the thirst of a dinosaur million* of years before them.
Water Is the ultimate amongst the world'* renewable resources. Virtually every particle of liquid, solid and gas is connected by the hydrological cycle which continuously transport* vast quantities of water around the globe, removing water here, renewing It there.
However, the volume of freshwater which Is readily accessible for mankind to use — the water resource — 1* but a Uny portion of the tptal transported globally by the hydro-logical cycle. This accessible water is mainly In river*, reservoirs and lake* or *ltu-ated a short distance below [the ground (the water level).
There can be no Issue that more conclusively demonstrates the integrated nature of environment and development than that of freshwater." says Maurice F Strong, Secretary General. United Nation* Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).
Agriculture, for example, 1* almost totally dependent on the regular supply of freshwater. accounting for roughly two-third* of It* use. An estimated 60 per cent of Irrigation water Is lo*t before it ever reaches a plant.
Irrigation become* very expensive when more than half the water is wasted. The cost in terms of environmental damage ia even higher with waterlogged soils, widespread soil salinity and depressed crop yield*.
Both surface and groundwater are Increasingly contaminated by toxic chemicals and hazardous waste*. and some of
these substances can pose a serious threat to health on the timescale of hundreds of years, says Mr Strong. Health, of course, is most directly associated with problems in the supply of freshwater.
In developing countries diarrhoea causes between four and five million deaths annually In children under five years old. In the first two years of life, as many as 15 of every
1,000 children will die from diarrhoea.
Yet the World Health Organisation says water and sanitation Improvements can reduce the overall Incidence of Infant and child diarrhoea by one-quarter and, more Important, total Infant and child mortality by more than one-half.
Already, over 80 per cent of all disease and over one-third of deaths tn developing coun-
tries are caused through the Ingestion of contaminated wa-
Durtng the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-90). for the first time about 1,600 million people received water supply. About 780 million people also received adequate levels of sanitation for the very first time.
In rural areas the increase
in service was particularly dramatic : the level of safe water coverage rose from 30 per cent to 63 per cent of the population. The number of additional people receiving urban sanitation services rose by 350 million.
At the end of the Water Decade in 1990, the supply of both drinking water and sanitation facilities Increased noticeably but failed to keep pace
with population growth.
in 1990, 31 million more people were unserved by water supply and 85 million more were without sanitation services than tn 1981. And by the year 2000, many countries will have only about half as much water as they had in 1975.
In absolute terms, there are still an estimated 1.23 billion people in developing countries without access to adequate and safe water supplies and 1.74 billion without access to appropriate sanitation.
The total cost of attaining universal coverage by the year 2000 is estimated at US$36 billion per year — or USS 15 billion for water supply and US$2) billion for sanitation per year.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ha* also devised a 10-year plan to promote wiser use of water. It tackles main problems like inefficient use, salinlsatlon and waterlogging, drainage and pollution.
— Depthnews Asia