United Nations focuses on sustainable water supplies
After helping bring climate change into the spotlight, the United Nations, under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urged business and political leaders to respond to looming water shortages around the world. Ban, speaking at the World Economic Forum, cited water shortages as significant contributing factors to the conflicts in areas like the Darfur region of Sudan.
Water supplies as a source of conflict
Referring to a recent International Alert report that claims water crises will affect almost 4 billion people as the global economy grows and there’s a per capita increase in water usage:
“Too often, where we need water we find guns instead,” Ban said. “Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon.”
He said a recent report identified 46 countries with 2.7 billion people where climate change and water-related crises create “a high risk of violent conflict” and a further 56 countries, with 1.2 billion people “are at high risk of violent conflict.” The report was by International Alert, an independent peacebuilding organization based in London.
Ban told the VIP audience that he spent 2007 “banging my drum on climate change,” an issue the Forum also had as one of its main themes last year. He welcomed the focus on water this year saying the session should be named: “Water is running out.”
“We need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change,” he said. “There is still enough water for all of us — but only so long as we can keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly.”
Privatizing the world’s water supply
Dead in the Water. A 2004 documentary called Dead in the Water, produced by the CBC’s The Fifth Estate, investigates the ongoing efforts of business and government to deliver water to consumers, focusing on the business side of things. The primary focus of investigative reporter Linden MacIntyre is the privatization of water supplies, something he feels should be considered a public trust, managed by and for the citizens of the world.
Growing Our Community » Blog Archive » Study: Nevada’s Lake Mead has a fifty percent chance of going dry by 2021 — February 14, 2008 @ 10:03 am
[…] Water supplies and access to water supplies are sure to be among the most significant battles humanity has on its hands for the 21st century. Sustainable fresh water sources are under siege as industry emerges in developing nations and western countries continue their unabated growth, so much so that the United Nations recently made the protection of said sources a focal point of its current environmental strategy. […]