Experts Say Water Could Become As Valuable As Oil
Reported March 23, 2009
Environmental activists watching a global forum on water said in the near future that water could become as precious of a commodity as oil and will likely become big business as water scarcity increases, Reuters reported.
Sunday marked the end of International World Water Day, an annual United Nations event that began in 1993 to promote sustainable management of fresh water resources.
The event is held every year to recognize water as an absolute human need, as human beings can live as long as 30 days without food but only seven without water.
Limited or no access to clean water effects more than a billion people worldwide and 2.5 billion are without water for sanitation. Dirty water is also responsible for some 80 percent of all borne disease.
This year’s World Water Forum in Turkey noted that clean, fresh water supplies are waning due to a warming world.
Jonathan Greenblatt, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who advised the Obama transition team on civic engagement and national service, said that as climate change accelerates and we see a changing hydrological cycle and diminishing access to resources, there are direct human impacts that are water-related.
He added that if sea levels rise as scientists predict, coastal regions might see increased salination of aquifers that affect access to fresh water as sea levels rise.
Desertification is occurring directly outside such areas as central China, with desert-like conditions coming to areas that were once fertile.
Greenblatt said water must be part of the agenda of legislators and policymakers in the same way that climate change has.
The World Health Organization reported there was a high return on investment in clean water projects, as every $1 spent on water and sanitation can bring economic benefits averaging between $7 and $12.
The WHO report showed that health care agencies could save $7 billion a year, employers could gain 320 million productive days a year for workers in the 15-to-59 age range, there could be an extra 272 million school attendance days annually and an added 1.5 billion healthy days for children under the age of five.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said in its blog that an investment of $11.3 billion a year could yield a payback of $83 billion a year in increased productivity and health.
The council’s Melanie Nakagawa wrote: “As many have pointed out in this week’s debates, this payback makes a very strong argument in favor of promoting safe water and sanitation in these difficult financial times.
The conservation group WWF International said the water forum does not go far enough in making this a top agenda item.
James Leape, the group’s director general, said in a statement that the well-managed or restored river systems that cope best with the climate change impacts we are seeing now are yet to come.
“This is clearly an issue of water management, but the ministerial declaration flowing from the World Water Forum is more a collection of platitudes than a plan for action,” he added.
Susan Keane, a public health expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Reuters she doesnt believe the world needs a water day to be reminded of the water shortages facing our future.
“I don’t know why anyone should need to be reminded of this, because it’s so obviously important and so obviously solvable,” Keane said.
