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World Water Crisis Underlies World Food Crisis

waterThe world's supplies of clean, fresh water cannot sustain growing use and inadequate management. The result has been shrinking food supplies and rising food costs in many countries.

Many of the world's irrigation areas are already highly stressed and drawing more water than rivers and groundwater reserves can sustain. At the same time freshwater food reserves are declining in the face of unsustainable water extractions from rivers.

Sanitation is a problem as well. As developing countries confront the first global food crisis since the 1970s, as well as unprecedented water scarcity, a new 53-city survey indicates that 80 percent of cities studied are using untreated or partially treated wastewater for agriculture. In over 70 percent of the cities studied, more than half of urban agricultural land is irrigated with wastewater that is either raw or diluted in streams.

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Most of the world is covered in water, yet the bulk of it is not available for our use because it’s salty or frozen. Just 0.007 percent of all the water on earth, or less than 1 percent of the world’s fresh water, is available for human use, according to Water Partners International.

Of that amount, much of it is polluted, unsanitary or dependent on cyclical rain patterns. Still, even though this sounds like just a tiny amount of fresh water, theoretically it should be plenty.

“Even this tiny proportion [of water], however, would be enough for humans to live on Earth if the water cycle was properly functioning and if we managed our water use wisely," said WWF Director General James Leape.

Water Shortage or Water Management?

There’s a lot of talk lately about running out of water. And this issue is already seriously impacting people in developing countries. More than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water, and another two out of six lack adequate sanitation, according to the World Water Council.

It’s also been suggested by NASA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies that:

• By the year 2050, some 4 billion people (or over half of the entire world's population) will be facing severe water shortages.

• In the United States, people living in Southwestern states like Arizona could be facing severe freshwater shortages by 2025.

There’s no doubt that water resources are becoming scarce … but it seems the problem is not so much about dwindling water supplies as it is about waste and management. As this excerpt from the World Water Vision Report says:
 
"There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people -- and the environment -- suffer badly."

At the heart of the problem is the huge amount of water wasted by irrigation practices throughout the world.

According to the World Water Council, 66 percent of water withdrawals are for irrigation, and in arid regions irrigation accounts for 90 percent of water withdrawals (other water withdrawals are for industry (20 percent) and household use (10 percent), while about 4 percent evaporates from reservoirs).

One of the keys to solving this problem, then, actually has nothing to do with water but with food. As the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) points out in their new report “Saving Water: From Field to Fork,” food wastage is water wastage.

“Tremendous quantities of food are discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and people’s kitchens,” SIWI says. “This wasted food is also wasted water. In the U.S., for instance, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some USD 48.3 billion, is thrown away. That’s like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion litres of water into the garbage can -- enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people.”

In fact, it’s thought that up to half of the water used to grow food around the world may be lost or wasted.

In order to solve the world water crisis some major shifts in thinking and policy are going to be needed on a large-scale, but you can do your part starting in your own kitchen by purchasing only the food you need to feed your family, and making sure to eat it before it goes bad.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (61)
 
 
Posted On Aug 30, 2008
Water shortages are over-rated and misunderstood. Want to know the truth of this matter? Go read the "Water Resources Management, A World Bank Water Policy Paper" published by the World Bank Bookstore. Water shortages are hype designed to muster more fear and the excuse for MORE control over natural resources by the World Bank. The WBG sees water as an 'economic resource' and wishes to tax water going in, coming out, and the benefits derived from the use of that water!

Another thing that I have observed here in my area. The farm land that was irrigated is disappearing and being replaced by cement and asphalt. There are more business complexes, strip malls, condos, and the like that DO NOT CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUBSURFACE WATER TABLES. Farming contributed to the resupply of our subsurface water table. Now that the farms are gone, anyone who is still reliant on "well water" is having a tough time getting enough water pressure for his/her household. Seems the solution that is given is to "hook up" to city water systems ( that are PRIVATELY OWNED )!

Then you have the "microclimate" model that shows the slight differences in the local climate related to the urbanization of a given area. This can include localized variations in temperature and rain fall ( not anything like the 'global warming' crowd is claiming ). The old saying that "you get what you give" is also true in nature. If you don't replenish where your water comes from, your water will "dry up". This was an added benefit that local farming once had.



 
ID_Scorpion081
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 11/2007
ID_Scorpion081  
Replied

Deborah.M
Novice User Novice User Joined On 3/2007
Deborah.M  
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

Its the Malthusian catastrophe in a nutshell. Mankind has a myopic focus on the here and now instead of a visionary view of the future. Society is becoming more and more individualistic. Instead of being preoccupied with wealth and growing of wealth we should also be investing in other things for our children like managing the ecological resources to sustain our children and mankind, but we don't. The earth, much like our bodies can take a lot of abuse but eventually it breaks down. It's a scary concept when you start to look into it. Anyone out there remember Soylent Green? The movie depicts a future in which overpopulation leads to depleted resources on earth. The guy that wrote this story envisioned the future. It's really, really scary to think about it.  



4GodinVA
Novice User Novice User Joined On 7/2008
4GodinVA  
 
Posted On Sep 10, 2008

Thanks for this info.  I agree completely.

Another strange development over the past several years ... Investors have gotten in on water.  For a little while, it seemed strange to me that investors would be buying into water companies around the globe, touted as the "new, upcoming, big money to be made" investment.  In short order I realized that, like the phony oil crisis used to control and rob us, the NWO was on its way to cornering the world's potable water supply as well.  God help us if they succeed.


 
 
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

I am not getting into the argument about climate change and what is causing it. I do know that Perth's(Western Australia) water comes from one huge dam in the hills, which has not overflowed in years. It used to be people would drive up into the hills to see the dam overflow in winter. This year it seems to be about half full, and we are having a record dry spring.

So, people, do what we do in Oz - INSTALL A RAINWATER TANK! Can't beat it for pure fresh water, free from the skies.


 
Julieanne
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 6/2007
Julieanne  
Replied

Healthyweare
Novice User Novice User Joined On 7/2008
Healthyweare  
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

Julieanne

Can you give me more resources and info on installing a water collection system.  We will be building a new home next spring and our goal is to be completely self reliant.  We are going solar, building an "envelope house", building a greenhouse and are going to do permaculture for our 20 acres.  Very exciting but lots of information to collect.  Any information on your water collection system will be greatly appreciated.  thank you.

jjlmtj@hotmail.com



Arixensjach
Novice User Novice User Joined On 8/2007
Arixensjach  
 
Posted On Sep 10, 2008

We need to change our focus away from wasteful centralized distribution systems. The more you can do for yourself the better. It's like when people criticize solar and wind power as not being enough, are still thinking in terms of large centralized production and distribution. If we adopt a distributed network system with things like power and water and cut down on waste, we can easily meet everyone's needs. If every home becomes a producer of water and power, and redistributes any surplus to the "grid" then others that our short on production can get the rest from the same "grid". Because there is always sun, wind, and rain somewhere.


 
 
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

FOLLOW THE MONEY!  

Pres. Bush bought 100,000 plus acres next to Rev. Moon's 1.4 Million Acres on the

Guarani Aquifer in South America.  en.wikipedia.org/.../Guaran%C3%AD_Aquifer

WHY?


 
Teri G
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 1/2008
Teri G  
Replied

heavenlycoconuts
Novice User Novice User Joined On 6/2006
heavenlycoconuts  
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

GOOD QUESTION!

An even better question is: How do we prosecute government criminals when the executive, legislative and judicial branches, Republicans and Democrats are in bed with each other and the computer voting machines are rigged?

BTW: I appreciate the specific information about Bushit's ranch in SA.


 
 
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

I think we can safely assume the new global government will take care of over population  ;)


 
htark05
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 11/2006
htark05  
 
 
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
Actually the head water to the Colorado River comes from Rocky Mountain National Park.
Look in an encyclopedia or here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River

 
JIIMMYB
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 8/2008
JIIMMYB  
Replied

EQ
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
EQ  
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
...and just downstream there are more and more mining and drilling operations going in at a frightening pace. 

Benzene with your tea, anyone?

 
 
 
 
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