EDITORIAL:
WATER
Where will the earth be without it? We may find out sooner than we wish
Predictions have been in the writings for decades that our wars about oil will soon cease. We will revert to the days of the Old American West, but on a Global scale.
In fact, water may be the only substance vital to life that is truly global. Any population or country which thinks it has plenty of water had better think again.
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The power of water and its ability to destroy |
So what if an ice shelf is melting, if the polar caps are growing smaller by the hour. So what if that means sea levels around the world are rising steadily. That means, just for starters, that coastal cities will vanish under the lapping seas. What do you mean the Gulf Stream has changed ….?
Well, the World Bank, of all monolithic institutions, was one of the first to predict wars over the planet’s supplies of water. And they will be global if not interplanetary. |
Ambassador Tibor P.Nagy, Jr., tells of his experiences in Ethiopia… “We had one bucket of water given to each of us every night. We did this and that, recycling the wash water from the entire night and morning for a flush of the toilet.” This or other recycling patterns could be the formula for water use, worldwide.
Because water plays a pivotal role for sustainable development, including poverty reduction, and since water crises can often be directly linked to issues of governance, the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI, Stockholm International Water Institute, has been launched to help support developing countries in their efforts to improve water governance.
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It seems unnecessary to point out that as water scarcity grows, poverty will spread to nations which now consider themselves to be wealthy and secure.
World leadership in water husbandry sees this clearly. “Prudent water management is crucial for reaching national development objectives and for improving the livelihoods of poor people,” says Mr. Håkan Tropp, Project Director for the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI. |
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“It is also a vital component of actions to improve environmental sustainability, by maintaining the integrity of ecosystems, and by bringing together stakeholders around a key resource that could either unite or divide societies.”
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