And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 23:06:52 EST
World water crisis looms, U.N. warns
Friday, March 19, 1999
A woman in India collects potable water provided by a solar-powered
pump. Thirty percent of the world's population will face water shortages
by the year 2050, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
However, this crisis could be averted at a cost of about $50 a person in
rural areas and $105 a person in cities. This annual cost would prevent
many of the 3.35 billion cases of illness and 5.3 million deaths caused
each year by unsafe water, the agency reports.
The United Nations has launched a public relations campaign to spur
people to take action to prevent the looming water crisis. The launch of
the campaign coincides with the World Day for Water on Monday.
The United Nations estimates the overall price to bring low-cost, safe
water and sanitation to all those who need it today in rural and
low-income urban areas at $23-$25 billion.
The current investment is $8 billion a year, leaving a $15-$17 billion
shortfall -- an amount roughly equal to annual pet food purchases in
Europe and the United States.
"This is the absolute minimum that the world community must provide to
the world's poor without water," said Hans van Ginkel, Rector of the
United Nations University, an international community of scholars who
promote the United Nations' aims of peace and progress.
With the increased funding, water can be brought to those who need it
through low-cost technologies such as hand pumps, gravity-fed systems
and rainwater collection.
In many countries, water shortages stem from inefficient use,
degradation of the available water by pollution and the unsustainable
use of underground water in aquifers.
The water crisis is so bad that, according to UNEP:
�Every eight seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease; �50
percent of people in developing countries suffer from one or more water
related diseases; �80 percent of the diseases in the developing world
are caused by contaminated water; �50 percent of people on Earth lack
adequate sanitation; �20 percent of freshwater fish species have been
pushed to the edge of extinction by contaminated water.
"Not only is the toll a human tragedy, but it means these people are
less able to carry on productive lives, and this undermines social and
economic development," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the
United Nations Environment Program.
The United Nations predicts that unless efforts are stepped up to bring
water to those in need, wars over water will breakout.
"Conflicts over water, both international and civil wars, threaten to
become a key part of the 21st century landscape," said van Ginkel.
Nearly 47 percent of the land area of the world, excluding Antarctica,
falls within international water basins shared by two or more countries,
the United Nations reports.
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