About 40 % of the world’s population live in water-polluted areas or have inadequate access to water. Rapid population growth combined with industrialisation and water-intensive lifestyles could result in global water crises. ‘There simply isn’t enough water for everyone; we have to share what’s left and make use of all technology available to improve its quality,’ says Shafqat Kakakhel, Deputy Executive Director of the UN’s Environment Programme.
Global freshwater consumption rose at more than double the rate of population growth from 1900 to 1995, according to statistics from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Says Kakakhel, If present consumption patterns continue, two out of every three people on earth will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025. Urban air pollution is another threat to fresh water, reaching crisis dimensions in most large cities of the developing world. Road traffic, burning of high-sulphur coal and oil, and forest fires are the major causes of such pollution.
Cleaner production
UNEP has been a driving force to create the International Declaration on Cleaner Production. It is a voluntary, public statement focusing on clean production as a main goal to eliminate pollution. Clean production means a preventive environmental management strategy towards eliminating pollution before it is created, rather than using end-of-pipe solutions.
Kakakhel explains, UNEP and the International Fertiliser Industry Association, representing 460 companies worldwide, have recently signed the declaration. The fertiliser industry accounts for two percent of world energy consumption and emissions of key greenhouse gases. The declaration outlines a set of principles encouraging fertiliser manufacturers to introduce preventive strategies and innovative solutions in order to implement cleaner production practices on sites all over the world.
Nitrate pollution
The intensive use of pesticides and fertilisers has led to chemicals being leached into freshwater supplies. Nitrate pollution from excess fertiliser use is now one of the most serious water quality problems. In the U.S.A. more than 40 million people obtained their drinking water in 1994 from a system in which there were violations of health-based standards, mainly those relating to nitrates. In some parts of Africa, nitrate loads in some suburban groundwater wells are 6-8 times levels acceptable to the World Health Organisation.
Alleviating scarcity
By 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions of serious water scarcity, according to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa can be classified as having water scarcity today. By 2025, these countries will be joined by Pakistan, South Africa, and large parts of India and China. This means that they will not have sufficient water resources to maintain their current level of per capita food production from irrigated agriculture, and to meet reasonable water needs for domestic, industrial, and environmental purposes.
Globally, IWMI predicts that, to meet the 2025 water needs, the world must develop 22% more primary water supply. The irrigation sectorby far the largest water user todaywill still account for 69% of the total primary water demand. To meet food needs, the primary water supply to irrigation must be increased by 17%. IWMIs conclusion is that, while the world must continue investing in water development projects to meet future food demands, investments in research to improve crop water productivity could be a cost-effective means to limit the requirement for new dams.
Concludes Kakakhel, Water security, like food security, will become a major priority in many areas of the world in the future. The declining state of the worlds freshwater resources in terms of quantity and quality may prove to be the dominant issue on the environmental and development agenda of the coming century.