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Future Wars Loom over Water

Henrylito D. Tacio writes from Manila
OVER a billion lives in developing countries are at risk either because water is growing scarce or because it is unsafe "World water demand is now triple what it was in the 1950s. nine times the level of 1990. and Is set to double again by the year 2050." says Eusabeth Dowdeawell. executive director the United Nations - Environment Programme (UNEP)
"Just as the world acted the tackle the ozone prob lem. we need a counterpart for water. There is a very real water crisis." she adds
Only one per cent of the earth's water supplies are available to the human population and 90 per cent of its fresh water is locked up in the polar ice caps
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says 80 per cent of common diseases are caused by unsanitary water. These diseases kill 25.000 people a day. mostly children.
In Asia, some 30 per cent of all deaths are attributed to infections caused by polluter or otherwise unsafe water, according to statistics from the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO)
The international community early on recognized this grim scenario. It declared the period 1981 to 1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. Its basic goal was to provide water and sanitation to hundreds of
millions of rural Third World residents.
Last year, the UN Fpod and Agriculture Organization chose Water for Life" for Its , theme for World Food Day. "The focus is on those water issues that directly affect the production of food and the quality of rural life." said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf
Both moves were in recognition of an emerging crisis.
Dr Roger Berthelot, a UNDP consultant, says water scarcity may even cause iu ture wars There will be no peace in the world unless we are prepared to insure it now by tackling the problems of water, which in some cases
are catastrophic." Berthelot says.
Dr Sandra Postel of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute, agrees. "No historic event is likely to trigger a worldwide restructuring of water use the way the oil price hikes did for energy." writes Dr Postel In her paper, Water: Rethinking Management In An Age of Scarcity. "Yet. if current trends continue, fresh water may In many’areas become a constraint on economic activity and food production over the coming decades
According to Dr Berthelot. galloping population increases exacerbate the water problem in poor countries where traditional agricultural
techniques require more water than modern ones.
Dr Berthelot says virulent disputes are simmering throughout Africa where about 140 million people are dying of starvation mainly caused by drought. He cited the drying up of the Senegal River in West Africa, which irrigates Senegal. Mauritania and Maali. as a devastating example
Dr Berthelot also cites the Nile River basin, which sup--ports one of the world s poorest regions, with a population of 240 million, the threat of water shortage has prompted moves to seek ways at developing water sources. But so tar. conflicting interests have thwarted progress, according to Dr Berthelot.
The Philippines also faces a major water shortage in the next two decades, says the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) as indicated by steady 30 to 50 per cent drops in the level of the country's water sources over the past 20 years. The rate of water level drop In the 1970s was a mere 0.2 meters. By the 1980s, the rate has accelerated to an average drop of one meter per year.
Filipino environmentalists warn that water as a precious commodity is becoming scarcer through environmen tai Influences such as soil erosion, desertification and falling groundwater levels, t
The "man-made" cause of water lack, they say. is defor estation, brought about principally by indiscriminate logging and kaingin (slash-and-burn) farming. While there is enough fresh water on the planet to support a population many times larger than today's FAO argues that unequal distribution of rainfall. pollution and land degradation have brought water scarcity to many countries.
The beat solution. FAO said, is water conservation. "Water may already be in short supply In some countries. but saving water and using It more effectively could. In effect, guarantee adequate supplies far into the future." Dr Diouf said.
— Depth News,