Conference Reports

The World’s Water, 2014

Growing pressure on the world's water resources is having major impacts on our social and economic well-being. Even as the planet's endowment of water is expected to remain constant, human appropriation of water, already at 50 percent by some measures, is expected to increase further (Postel et al. 1996). Pressures on water resources are likely to worsen in response to population growth, shifts toward more meat-based diets, climate change, and other challenges. Moreover, the world's water is increasingly becoming degraded in quality, raising the cost of treatment and threatening human and ecosystem health (Palaniappan et al. 2010). Furthermore, the physical availability of freshwater resources does not guarantee that a safe, affordable water supply is available to all. At least 780 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, some 2.5 billion people lack access to safe sanitation systems, and 2-5 million people-mainly children-die as a result of preventable water-related diseases every year (Gleick 2002; UN 2009; WHO and UNICEF 2012). There is growing recognition that the scope and complexity of water-related challenges extend beyond national and regional boundaries and therefore cannot be adequately addressed solely by national or regional policies. In a recent report, the United Nations notes that "water has long ceased to be solely a local issue" (UN 2012a, 40). In particular, widespread water scarcity and lack of access to water supply and sanitation threaten socioeconomic development and national security for countries around the world. Additionally, people around the world share and exchange water directly and indirectly through natural hydrologic units and systems and through global trade (i.e., "virtual water," discussed below). Furthermore, climate change and the growing presence of multinational companies within the water sector play a role in globalizing water issues (Hoekstra 2006). Over the past sixty years, a number of efforts have sought to address the many challenges facing the water sector. Early efforts to address these challenges were almost entirely based on developing large-scale physical infrastructure, such as dams and reservoirs, to produce new water supplies. Amid a growing recognition that technology and infrastructure alone were not sufficient to address persistent water management concerns, discourse about water governance began to emerge in the early 1990s. In its first World Water Development Report, the United Nations strongly stated that the "water Global Water Challenges As described below, the scope and complexity of water-related challenges extend beyond traditional national and regional boundaries. Such challenges require broader thinking and more comprehensive solutions. Water Scarcity Water scarcity is a major challenge, affecting every continent around the world. Water scarcity occurs when water demand nears (or exceeds) the available water supply. Several groups, including the World Resources Institute and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), have developed tools to promote a better understanding of where and how water risks are emerging around the world. The IWMI, for example, estimates that 1.2 billion people-nearly 20 percent of the world's population-live in areas of physical water scarcity, where water withdrawals for agriculture, industry, and domestic purposes exceed 75 percent of river flows. An additional 500 million people live in areas approaching physical scarcity. Another 1.6 billion people live in areas of economic water scarcity, where water is available but human capacity or financial resources limit access. In these areas, adequate infrastructure may not be available or, if water is available, its distribution may be inequitable (IWMI 2007). But water scarcity isn't solely a natural phenomenon; it's also a human one. Numerous human activities-such as untimely water use, pollution, insufficient or poorly maintained infrastructure, and inadequate management systems-can result in or exacerbate water scarcity. As noted by the United Nations, there are adequate water resources to meet our needs, but water "is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed" (UN 2012b). Widespread declines in groundwater levels are one symptom of water scarcity. Groundwater is an important source of freshwater in many parts of the world. Some areas, however, have become overly dependent on groundwater supplies. In the past two decades, advances in well-drilling techniques have significantly reduced the cost of extracting groundwater. Driven, in part, by these technological advancements, groundwater withdrawals have tripled over the past fifty years (UN 2012a). In some areas, the rate of groundwater extraction now consistently exceeds natural recharge rates, causing widespread depletion and declining groundwater levels. A recent analysis of groundwater extraction by hydrologist Yoshihide Wada and colleagues (2010) finds that depletion rates doubled between 1960 and 2000 and are especially high in parts of China, India, and the United States. Much of the groundwater extracted supports agriculture (67 percent), although it is also used for domestic (22 percent) and industrial (11 percent) purposes.

2010

The great city is that which has the greatest men or women, If it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the world.-Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe WATER HAS STEADILY CLIMBED the global political agenda during the first decade of the twenty-first century. During the 1980s and 1990s, water was not an important resource issue in international environmental and humanitarian dialogue. Issues like climate change and biodiversity took center stage: water was at best a bit player. All heads of state completely ignored the fact that water scarcity was a problem and could become an even more serious problem in the coming years. Even at present, most member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) do not consider water to be an important issue, mistakenly believing that developed countries have resolved all their water-related problems. 1 This, unfortunately, is not the case. Developed countries have different types of water problems compared to developing countries, especially with regards to modernizing their infrastructure (some of which were laid more than a century ago and are well past their functional lives) and improving the efficiencies of water delivery and use. The fact is that for nearly all countries of the world, water continues to be a problem. However, the types of water problems faced by different countries are not similar. The magnitude and extent of these problems differ, and their solutions are similarly likely to vary, even within national borders. This is to be expected since countries are not homogenous-they differ in respect to the level of economic and social development; climatic patterns (even when annual average rainfalls are similar); technical, management, and administrative capacities; and strength and effectiveness of institutional arrangements for managing water. While the type, magnitude, and extent of water problems may vary from one country to another, the primary reason why nearly all countries are facing them is the poor water management practices of the past and the present. There are signs of rapid improvements in some select locations of the world, but in many other areas the improvements have been, at best, incremental, and sometimes even illusory.

Choice Reviews Online, 2007

The cover design captures the idea that millions of the world's people lack access to safe water not because of scarcity, but because they are locked out by poverty, inequality and government failures. Tackling these problems holds the key to resolving the global water crisis. Safe water and sanitation are fundamental to human development. When people are deprived in these areas, they face diminished opportunities to realize their potential as human beings. Unsafe water and inadequate sanitation are two of the great drivers of world poverty and inequality. They claim millions of lives, destroy livelihoods, compromise dignity and diminish prospects for economic growth. Poor people, especially poor women and children, bear the brunt of the human costs. At the start of the 21 st century we live in a world of unparalleled prosperity. Yet almost 2 million children die each year for want of clean water and a toilet. More than 1 billion people do not have access to safe water and some 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation. Meanwhile, inadequate access to water as a productive resource consigns millions to lives of poverty and vulnerability. The Report documents the systematic violation of the right to water, identifies the s u m m a r y h u m a n d e v e l o p m e n t r e p o r t 2 0 0 6 Foreword This year's Human Development Report looks at an issue that profoundly influences human potential and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Throughout history human progress has depended on access to clean water and on the ability of societies to harness the potential of water as a productive resource. Water for life in the household and water for livelihoods through production are two of the foundations for human development. Yet for a large section of humanity these foundations are not in place. The word crisis is sometimes overused in development. But when it comes to water, there is a growing recognition that the world faces a crisis that, left unchecked, will derail progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and hold back human development. For some, the global water crisis is about absolute shortages of physical supply. The Report rejects this view. It argues that the roots of the crisis in water can be traced to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, as well as flawed water management policies that exacerbate scarcity. Access to water for life is a basic human need and a fundamental human right. Yet in our increasingly prosperous world, more than 1 billion

Emerging water issues in the 21st century, 2020

It almost sounds like a cliché: the 21st century is going to revolve around the fight for freshwater. Plenty of forecasts are available to describe ominous scenarios of the natural water circulation radically changing from 2030 to 2050, and most of the regions in the world crossing the threshold of being able to make up for the water used and polluted by humans. The most concerning issues are environmental degradation due to overpopulation and water scarcity. This paper focuses on global water scarcity and its projected implications.