UN Warns of Severe Water Shortages

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

UN Warns of Severe Water Shortages
Fri Mar 22, 7:25 PM ET
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Warning that 2.7 billion people face a
critical shortage of drinkable water by 2025, the United Nations
(news - web sites) marked World Water Day on Friday with a call
for a "blue revolution" to conserve and tap the seas for new
supplies.

In fewer than 25 years, about 5 billion people will be living in
areas where it will be difficult or impossible to meet all their
needs for fresh water, creating "a looming crisis that
overshadows nearly two-thirds of the Earth's population," a U.N.
report said.

It was released in Vienna by the International Atomic Energy
Agency, a nuclear watchdog organization leading the United
Nations' effort to draw attention to the world's water shortage
and the need to save water whenever possible.

"The simple fact is that there is a limited amount of water on
the planet, and we cannot afford to be negligent in its use,"
said the IAEA's director, Mohamed ElBaradei. "We can't keep
treating it as if it will never run out."

Already, an estimated 1.1 billion people have no access to safe
drinking water, 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation and more than
5 million people die from waterborne diseases each year ? 10
times the number of casualties killed in wars around the globe,
the report said.

Less than 3 percent of the world's water is fresh, and most of it
is trapped in polar ice or buried underground in springs too deep
to reach, it said. Freshwater lakes, rivers and reservoirs may
seem numerous but provide just a drop in the bucket, the report
said.

"Even where supplies are sufficient or plentiful, they are
increasingly at risk from pollution and rising demand," U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in a
statement, warning that "fierce national competition over water
resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds
of violent conflict."

The worst-affected areas are the deserts and semiarid regions of
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where fresh drinking water is
extremely scarce, in part because of the region's wildly variable
climate and unchecked population growth, the World Meteorological
Organization (news - web sites) said.

"Without better management of water resources ... two-thirds of
humanity will suffer from severe or moderate shortages by the
year 2025," added Koichiro Matsuura, who heads the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Water ministers from 22 African countries have called for a
regional and global alliance, backed by international funding, to
tackle water and sanitation problems.

Among the solutions, they say, are the development of
desalination facilities that can turn salt water into drinking
water and the mapping of subterranean reservoirs. Ninety-eight
percent of the world's water is salty, and desalination is both
time-consuming and too costly for many developing countries.

Millions of women trudge long distances every day in search of
water or send their children to look for it, meaning they miss
opportunities to work, grow crops and attend school, the U.N.
report said.

"Without adequate clean water, there can be no escape from
poverty," said Klaus Toepfer, director of the U.N. Environment
Program. "Water is the basis for good health and food production.
Mankind is always at its mercy."

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On the Net:

World Water Day, www.waterday2002.iaea.org