The Global Water Crisis:
Truth... or Just More Hype?
Water: The New Oil. Have you heard that one? What about Blue Gold? Clichés perhaps, but undeniable reality as well. Water quality and availability have become serious local, national and international issues, bringing together groups as diverse as Nestlé and the United Nations and provoking long, drawn-out courtroom battles, such as the recent dispute pitting Georgia, Florida, and Alabama against each other in a decades-long argument that even White House mediation couldn’t reconcile. All this fuss over plain, ordinary water, a liquid that has long been considered an infinite entitlement rather than a limited resource requiring careful stewardship.
Experts tell us that water scarcity is a real problem right now for over 40 percent of the people on our planet, a problem that exists on every single continent! These words of warning are not “scare tactics” uttered by politicians or corporate moguls with hidden agendas—they are verifiable facts originating from respected authorities in the international scientific community. And their prognosis for our future? It is projected that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions, and 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.
Population-induced climate changes are an oft-cited cause of water scarcity, especially in the driest areas of the world, home to more than 2 billion of the poorest people on the planet. Agriculture is by far the largest user of our Earth’s fresh water: the amount needed to produce food for the growing world population is a staggering 70 percent of all water withdrawals. “To tackle water scarcity even as the demand for food increases, we must support initiatives to produce more food with proportionally less water. . . . this means protecting our waterways, keeping our forests healthy and improving the way in which we irrigate crops and manage livestock.” Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Other population-based factors leading to escalated water use include increasing urbanization and the associated domestic and industrial water use by people who live in more developed areas. Heather Cooley, senior research associate at the Pacific Institute, testifying to the United States Congress Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on July 10, 2008, said: “The United States already faces growing pressures on existing water resources due to increases in population, industrial and agricultural water demand, and rapid development in semi-arid and arid regions. Based on a sizable and growing body of scientific analysis, it now seems highly likely that climate change will vastly increase those pressures. Of special concern is an expected increased risk of extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and heat waves. “In other words, those once-in-100-years occurrences (that have a 1% chance of happening in any given year) become once-in-10-years events (having a 10% chance of occurring in any given year).
In an article in Natural News, posted April 15, 2008, David Gutierrez stated, “Rising temperatures due to global warming have increased evaporation rates across the [United States] and reduced the availability of important water sources. One of these is the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies a significant portion of California’s water. Across the [western United States], similar trends are expected to reduce flows of the Colorado River, which supplies water for seven states. Meanwhile, rising sea levels are expected to cause saltwater to infiltrate freshwater aquifers in coastal states, rendering that water unusable.”
Although these remarks by Ms. Cooley and Mr. Gutierrez focus on the United States, their concerns are global in nature, and our solutions need to reflect this. We must rethink our management of existing water resources. It is imperative, as Dr. Diouf warns us, that we find the “will to support policies and invest in programmes that protect our natural environment, conserve water and use less water to do more.” This problem belongs to everyone, not just other people in other places. Nor can we leave it for future generations to handle.
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Next: How long can golf continue its lush and “green” mentality when essential water is needed for food and drinking?
