The Coming Water Crisis

By Travis Williams

I had a teacher in high school that once told me that the next world war would be fought over water.

Water has been a human right to survival for as long as we have been on this planet. It is the capstone of our most important biological need and is the main ingredient to virtually every major food group in the world.

Without water, we would not be here.

Our daily actions that contribute to climate change, our population growth and constant need to make a profit off of every commodity (yes, water is a commodity and its industry is third to oil and electricity at $400 billion a year) have led to water being a scarce resource.

An article from CNN in 2008 wrote: "One sixth of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. More than 2 million people, most of them children, die each year from water-borne diseases."

An article from the Economist in May of this year: "...a resource long squandered, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by insatiable demand. Aquifers are falling, glaciers vanishing, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the problems worse. Everyone must use less water if famine, pestilence and mass migration are not to sweep the globe"

The New York Times posted in this month: "As population growth and climate change increase the pressure for adequate water and food, water will increasingly become a security issue. As global temperatures rise, 'water refugees' will increase. Water touches everything, and strong collaboration among all sectors of society - governments, activists, farmers and the business and science communities - is needed to increase its availability."

A recent documentary on the worldwide water shortage called, FLOW explains: "We take massive amounts [of water] and we irrigate the desert, where it evaporates. We're pumping groundwater all over the world far faster that it can be replenished by nature. We are actually running out of fresh, clean water everywhere in the world, including here in North America. We have to give up this myth of abundance. We have come to the limits of the planet."

We live in a world where 2.6 billion people live without proper sanitation and well over 800 million people live without clean water. These numbers are expected to grow in the coming years as we add people to the planet, increasing the demand for water and water products.

Two of the largest sources of water usage are farming and industry, which are both growing at exceptional rates.

Here in the United States, we use 41% of our water for agriculture in the form of irrigation, China uses 70% and India uses 90% (agriculture as a whole accounts for nearly 70% of water usage). People living in booming economies such as China and India are increasingly seeking better food and higher living standards. As a result of this, more farming is being demanded and thus, more water to irrigate the farms. It takes four times as much water to grow a kilo of beef than chicken, and nearly five times as much to make a cup of orange juice than a cup of tea.

World industry takes a staggering 22% of the world�s annual water usage while domestic activities account for 8%. The Economist cites, "[domestic activities and industry]� quadrupled in the second half of the 20th century, growing twice as fast as those of farming, and forecasters see nothing but further increases in demand on all fronts."

Climate change is another facet of the problem and has resulted in depleting our largest reserve of natural fresh water, glaciers. When the earth warms up, the glaciers react accordingly and melt, and not before long, evaporate. If this isn�t alarming enough, the largest body of fresh water lies frozen, in Antarctica and accounts for 70% of the world�s fresh water.

Clean water is not only a human right but can be good business as a recent Op � Ed in the New York Times points out: "Making access to water and sanitation a daily reality is good business, and good for the world economy. According to the U.N. Environment Program, a $20 million investment in low-cost water technologies could help 100 million farming families escape extreme poverty. Dedicating $15 billion a year to the water and sanitation millennium goals could bring $38 billion a year in global economic benefits. That's a pretty good rate of return in today�s financial climate. It is within our grasp for the first time."

Sparking this discussion, the UN General Assembly is meeting this week to make a vote assuring that safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right. Many countries are on board with this plan but some, including the United States and Canada have abstained this action.

We cannot be satisfied in the future knowing that when we wake up and take our clean showers and brush our teeth with clean water, there are billions of other people who�s morning routines consist of searching for enough water to live another day. If we cannot come together now and address this issue, leaving business, politics, and private agendas aside, my teacher may be right.