The Role of Science in Solving the Earth's Emerging Water Problems (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Arthur M Sackler -- D C O LL O O U I A ~ 7^ or THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES THE ROLE OF SCIENCE IN SOLVING THE EARTH S EMERGING WATER PROBLEMS October 8-10, 2004 PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS 5
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The fact that water is finite makes a shift in thinking essential by moving focus from mobilising more blue water and willful neglect of escalating water pollution towards more productive use of water by minimising losses, blue as well as green; towards reducing per capita blue water needs; and towards an active water pollution abatement. A challenging component of a successful water resources management will have to be a catchment-based orchestrating of partly incompatible water imperatives, paying due attention to both human needs, water availability, land use and ecosystem requirements.
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Long term experience shows that the per capita consumption of fresh water in industrialized countries lies around 1500 to 1700 cubic meter per year. These numbers could be verified by analyzing fresh water supply and amount of food imported by countries with limited amount of water available.
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No attempt is made here to convert services to a monetary equivalent, although such a conversion could be added through the use of recently developed valuation methods. Aquatic ecosystems are assigned a baseline importance corresponding to their natural state.
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Water development is the number one threat to species: it stresses one third of all the species listed under the ESA as threatened or endangered, while specific water management activities such as water diversion and flow disruptions affect a quarter of the listed species. Dams, by their control of flows, are the most common human controls on rivers that threaten wildlife populations by eliminating pre-dam habitats through channel shrinkage and simplification of the fluvial geomorphology.
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From page 10... ...
The substantial crop water requirements under irrigation usually represent the lion's share of such resources, leaving limited volumes for other sectors. Finally, the storage and diversion facilities that form the basis of irrigated agriculture cause fundamental changes in river hydrology and in the landscape, changes that have deep effects on ecosystems and that are increasingly challenged by segments of society.
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Engineers and scientists responsible for safe public water supply took several actions to control waterborne disease. These include: 1)
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While that approach has, by and large, been successful in producing its primary output, cheap food, and has provided water supply and sanitation to large numbers of people, the flip side is also clear. Many people do not have access to safe and affordable water supply, despite enormous investments, close to half the world population lacks access to sanitation, many rural poor do not have access to water for productive purposes, groundwater levels in key aquifers are falling rapidly, many rivers are no longer reaching the sea, etc.
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From page 13... ...
IDE estimates to have sold 1.3 million pumps since the mid-1980s in Bangladesh, and Z00,000 in eastern India and the Nepal Terai since the mid-1990s and indicates that, eastern India and the Nepal Terai have an ultimate market potential for some 10 million treadle pumps. Rainwater harvesting refers to a host of small scale technologies that aim to conserve rainfall, either in the field directly, or in small structures.
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From page 14... ...
This is one of the world's largest aquifer systems and supports an enormous exploitation of groundwater which has reaped large socio-economic benefits in terms of grain production, farming employment and rural poverty alleviation, together with urban and industrial water supply provision. This has however produced major and continuing groundwater level decline and many associated problems: hundreds of thousands of dry wells, sea water intrusion, land subsidence over vast areas and groundwater salinisation.
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Even so, there is a growing consensus at the highest levels of government, international and national, that some values and physical realities need to be recognized everywhere. The paper traces the influence of broad and general standards and regulations including the European Union Water Framework Directive and the United States' Endangered Species Act upon emergent regional water management institutions.
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From page 16... ...
Growing scarcity of this vital natural resource, coupled with the fact that so much of it is shared by two or more countries, produces an obvious potential for competition and conflict, but also for cooperation to enhance efficiencies and even water supply. This presentation will address the role of international law in the field of shared freshwater resources through four case studies, ranging from a dispute between the United States and Mexico over the Rio Grande in the late 1 9lh century to the present situation as between the Israelis and Palestinians in relation to shared groundwater and the Jordan River.
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