Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Forum emphasizes BRI cooperation between China and Arab countries
Rights to lower sleeper berths should be softened by empathy for fellow passengers
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Water wars break out when wells run dry
By Jeffrey D. Sachs |
April 23, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY conflicts are caused or inflamed by water scarcity.
The United States and Europe often spend tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars to send troops or bombers to quell uprisings or target "failed states," but do not send one-tenth or even one-hundredth of that amount to address the underlying crises of water scarcity and under-development.
Water problems will not go away by themselves. On the contrary, they will worsen unless we, as a global community, respond.
Water supplies are increasingly under stress in large parts of the world, especially in the world's arid regions.
Rapidly intensifying water scarcity reflects bulging populations, depletion of groundwater, waste and pollution, and the enormous and increasingly dire effects of man-made climate change.
The consequences are harrowing: drought and famine, loss of livelihood, the spread of water-borne diseases, forced migrations, and even open conflict.
Practical solutions will include many components, including better water management, improved technologies to increase the efficiency of water use, and new investments undertaken jointly by governments, the business sector, and civic organizations.
I have seen such solutions in the Millennium Villages in rural Africa, a project in which my colleagues and I are working with poor communities, governments, and businesses to find practical solutions to the challenges of extreme rural poverty.
In Senegal, for example, a world-leading pipe manufacturer, JM Eagle, donated more than 100 kilometers of piping to enable an impoverished community to join forces with the government water agency PEPAM to bring safe water to tens of thousands of people.
But future water stresses will be widespread, including both rich and poor countries. The US, for example, encouraged a population boom in its arid southwestern states in recent decades, despite water scarcity that climate change is likely to intensify.
Australia is grappling with serious droughts in the agricultural heartland of the Murray-Darling River basin.
The Mediterranean Basin, including Southern Europe and North Africa is also likely to experience serious drying as a result of climate change.
The precise nature of the water crisis will vary, with different pressure points in different regions. Solutions will have to be found at all "scales," meaning that we will need water solutions within individual communities, along the length of a river, and globally to head off the worst effects of global climate change.
A crucial step is to bring together scientific, political, and business leaders from societies that share the problems of water scarcity to brainstorm about creative approaches to overcoming them.
Such a gathering would enable information-sharing, which could save lives and economies.
It would also underscore a basic truth: the common challenge of sustainable development should unify a world divided by income and geography.
(The author is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Shanghai Daily condensed his article. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009. www.project-syndicate.org.)
The United States and Europe often spend tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars to send troops or bombers to quell uprisings or target "failed states," but do not send one-tenth or even one-hundredth of that amount to address the underlying crises of water scarcity and under-development.
Water problems will not go away by themselves. On the contrary, they will worsen unless we, as a global community, respond.
Water supplies are increasingly under stress in large parts of the world, especially in the world's arid regions.
Rapidly intensifying water scarcity reflects bulging populations, depletion of groundwater, waste and pollution, and the enormous and increasingly dire effects of man-made climate change.
The consequences are harrowing: drought and famine, loss of livelihood, the spread of water-borne diseases, forced migrations, and even open conflict.
Practical solutions will include many components, including better water management, improved technologies to increase the efficiency of water use, and new investments undertaken jointly by governments, the business sector, and civic organizations.
I have seen such solutions in the Millennium Villages in rural Africa, a project in which my colleagues and I are working with poor communities, governments, and businesses to find practical solutions to the challenges of extreme rural poverty.
In Senegal, for example, a world-leading pipe manufacturer, JM Eagle, donated more than 100 kilometers of piping to enable an impoverished community to join forces with the government water agency PEPAM to bring safe water to tens of thousands of people.
But future water stresses will be widespread, including both rich and poor countries. The US, for example, encouraged a population boom in its arid southwestern states in recent decades, despite water scarcity that climate change is likely to intensify.
Australia is grappling with serious droughts in the agricultural heartland of the Murray-Darling River basin.
The Mediterranean Basin, including Southern Europe and North Africa is also likely to experience serious drying as a result of climate change.
The precise nature of the water crisis will vary, with different pressure points in different regions. Solutions will have to be found at all "scales," meaning that we will need water solutions within individual communities, along the length of a river, and globally to head off the worst effects of global climate change.
A crucial step is to bring together scientific, political, and business leaders from societies that share the problems of water scarcity to brainstorm about creative approaches to overcoming them.
Such a gathering would enable information-sharing, which could save lives and economies.
It would also underscore a basic truth: the common challenge of sustainable development should unify a world divided by income and geography.
(The author is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Shanghai Daily condensed his article. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009. www.project-syndicate.org.)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
