World's water supply under threat

With a growing world population, unacceptably high levels of pollution and anticipated global climate change, water scarcity is predicted to reach unprecedented levels around the world in the coming decades unless firm action is taken, and taken soon. "Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth," UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said recently in introducing the World Water Development Report [www.unesco.org/water/], an overview of the state of the resource. With water consumption almost doubling in the last 50 years, and per capita water supplies decreasing by a third between 1970 and 1990, "the future of many parts of the world looks bleak", warns the report. The international community has, as one of the Millennium Development Goals, pledged to halve the proportion of people living without access to safe drinking water by 2015. To achieve these targets, an additional 1.5 billion people around the world will require improved access to water supply, which translates to providing water services to an additional 274,000 people each day until 2015, according to UN figures. "Water supplies are falling while the demand is dramatically growing at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water world-wide per person is expected to drop by a third," says Matsuura. In recognition of the growing problem, 2003 has been named the International Year of Freshwater [www.wateryear2003.org], and the Third World Water Forum [www.world.water-forum3.com] is taking place in Kyoto, Japan, during March. To mark these efforts and raise awaerness of March 22nd has been denoted as World Water Day [www.waterday2003.org]. Crisis in Africa On the African continent, figures from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) for the year 2000 show that water stress (defined as less than 1,700 metres cubed per capita per year) or water scarcity (less than 1,000 metres cubed per capita per year) has already been observed in 14 of the 53 African countries. Problems with water availability in Africa are further complicated by highly variable levels of rainfall, with some evidence that the frequency of drought and floods have increased over the last 30 years, according to UNEP's Africa Environment Outlook (AE0). Increased frequency of drought and flooding has the potential to stress water systems further than they are already stressed by population growth and pollution and, according to the AEO, 25 African countries are expected to experience water scarcity or water stress over the next 20–30 years.

Expected water stress or scarcity in Africa in 2025 DIAGRAM: "Africa water scarcity 2025"

"Lack of availability and inadequate quality of freshwater are the two most limiting factors for development in Africa, constraining food production and industrial activities", the AEO says. In many developing countries, there has also been a partial trade-off between the pressure to increase energy production and develop industries, and the desire to preserve aquatic ecosystems, thus posing problems for institutions trying to make the best use of their natural resources. According to the AEO, there are more than 1,200 dams in Africa. Although only a few were built primarily for power generation, hydroelectric power accounts for over half the electric power generated in 25 African countries, making some of these countries power output vulnerable to rainfall variations, and water shortages. Besides providing much needed energy for economic growth, however, some dams have caused the displacement of local people, and have altered patterns of erosion and flooding, says the AEO. Cooperation the key Since all Africa's major rivers cross several international boundaries and, with the exception of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, all African lakes are shared across international borders, international cooperation is vital if the continent's freshwater resources are to be used equitably, dams built to provide power, and conflict between riparian states avoided. That conflicts and disputes over water resources will inevitably occur as population grows and global warming takes hold has become a commonly held point of view among water experts. In contrast to many observers, however, the World Water Development Report says that cooperation between states is much more likely than conflict in shared river basins. According to the report, over the last 50 years, there have been 1,200 cooperative interactions in shared basins, compared with 500 conflictual ones, with no formal wars over the issue. Even in the absence of conflict, however, water quality can be put at great risk in shared water systems, often increasing tension between nations, or affecting a nation's internal stability, the report adds. Declining water quality, often as a result of pollution, compounds the existing problems of water availability in the developing world. According to calculations in the report there is an estimated 12,000 square km of polluted water worldwide, which is equivalent to more than the total amount contained in the world's ten largest river basins at any given moment.

Poor urban dwellers bear the brunt of inadequate water systems"

"The poor continue to be the worst affected by pollution, with half the populations of developing countries exposed to polluted water sources," says the report. Giving the poor better access to better managed water can make a big contribution to poverty eradication, the report asserts. With high demand for water driving unsustainable practices, and competition for water resources between sectors, communities and nations, the key to making the best use of the water available lies in the better management of water resources, according to the World Water Development Report. Despite strong evidence of the water crisis, political commitment to tackle it has been lacking. Although several targets to improve water management have been set over the years, "hardly any" have been met says the report. "This crisis is one of water governance, essentially caused by the ways in which we mismanage water," says the report. "Globally, the challenge lies in raising the political will to implement water-related commitments," it adds.