World faces growing water shortages

Lack of fresh water is likely to be major physical constraint to food production and rural development in the future...but the potential for water saving is enormous. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization focused the celebration of the World Food Day, which fell on Oct. 16, on water conservation. The following is excerpt of its reports on the problem.

JAKARTA (JP): The importance of water for life was tragically obvious in the Goma refugee camp outside Rwanda where about 70,000 people died from cholera and other water borne diseases. They died because they had no clean water. Death from dehydration or disease became their only choice.

While the Rwandan tragedy dramatized the life-sustaining value of clean fresh water, globally about 4 million children die from diarrhea every year, caused by water-borne infections.

Too little water aggravates serious food shortages. Some countries suffering from this problem include Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda and parts of Tanzania.

FAO director-General Jacques Diouf, appealing for prudent use of water, says, "At present, we use water very wastefully. We spill huge quantities in our attempts to grow food and supply our cities -- as much as 60 percent of the water used in irrigation is wasted. We pollute rivers and lakes, undermining the value and utility of these vital sources of supply for home, agriculture and industry."

Seventy percent of the world's fresh water is used in agriculture. When there is not enough, crops die and famine threatens, forcing hungry people to leave land and homes in search of food. The old, weak and most vulnerable people who remain behind become victims of starvation.

To underscore the need for better management of water resources, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) dedicated this year's World Food Day to "Water for Life."

Rain-fed agriculture provides about two-thirds of the world's food crops. Large areas of this cropland are in poor shape, damaged by population growth, both human and livestock. Rapid growth has led to soil erosion, over-grazing, deforestation and expansion of arable farming onto unsuitable marginal land.

Though some domestic animals account for one-quarter of world agriculture value, they consume 60 billion liters of water a day, so where water is scarce, overgrazing soon results.

The world's rapidly growing population has been fed, so far, by increased food production made possible by expanding irrigated agriculture. Irrigated land is at least twice as productive as rain fed cropland. It produces about a third of the world's food on just one-sixth of the land. But, with global population projected at 8.3 billion by 2025, up from 5.7 billion now, land suitable for irrigation is becoming harder to find and irrigation water even scarcer.

Water is a finite resource, continually recycled and purified by the hydrological cycle. But, as demand grows, there is as yet no economically viable way to increase the supply of fresh water by any significant amount. In theory the earth's fresh water could support a population many times larger than today's, but unequal rainfall, pollution and land degradation have brought water scarcity to many countries.

In 1955 water was scarce in seven countries: Bahrain, Barbados, Djibouti, Jordan, Kuwait, Malta and Singapore. Today, that number has grown to about 20 and includes Algeria, Burundi, Cape Verde, Israel, Kenya, Malawi, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. By 2025, Comoros, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Oman, South Africa and Syria are projected to become water scarce.

A survey for the UN Economic Commission for Europe found that Cyprus, Poland, Rumania and the Ukraine have inadequate water to meet current needs, while by the year 2000 an additional five countries -- Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and Turkey -- may join them.

Water scarcity is a global problem. Japan's large industrial water users are importing water and the government recently lifted regulations inhibiting the import of bottled water. In China this year, the worst drought since 1934 has damaged 40 million acres of cropland.

At present, about 300 million people suffer from water problems and this may increase 10 fold by 2025.

Appreciation

The failure to recognize and accept that water is finite has led to its misuse and scarcity. Now, that scarcity threatens sustainable development in many countries.

Everywhere there is a growing appreciation that clean fresh water is undervalued. The United Nations focused international concern on water at the 1992 Dublin, Ireland International Conference on Water and the Environment, which developed policy guidance for the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, which called for worldwide water sector reforms.

Recently, FAO established an International Action Program on Water and Sustainable Agricultural Development. Many other UN, international, national and local organizations also are becoming active in water issues. The thrust of FAO's effort is to encourage water conservation and careful management of water in agriculture, fisheries and forestry.

To prevent water scarcity from undercutting food production, FAO is exploring a wide range of options including the use of lower-quality water, such as drainage water and treated waste water for irrigation. This practice is increasing, particularly in arid areas such as parts of China, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Kuwait.

Efficiently managed conservation programs can be highly effective. For example, water consumption has not increased since the 1970s in some European countries and in the United States. By the end of the century, FAO projects water consumption in these areas will be reduced even further from today's levels by additional water-saving measures.

Uses of water differ greatly depending on access, quantity, quality and socio-economic conditions. Agricultural water use is higher as a proportion of total water use in low-income countries than in high income countries. However, on a per capita basis, high-income countries use more water for agricultural purposes than low-income countries.

Worldwide, as much as 60 percent of the water drawn from reservoirs or pumped from underground for irrigation never reaches the crop. This can be greatly reduced by improving technology and water management and charging farmers realistic prices for water, not just a fraction of what is really worth.

Another problem is poor drainage, leading to waterlogging and salinization of the land. This can restrict or even prevent plant growth. In the United States salinization has claimed 27 percent of irrigated land. Globally between 10 to 15 percent of land equipped for irrigation has been degraded by salinization and waterlogging.

The condition can be corrected. In Pakistan, between 1960 and 1985, some 32 salinization control and reclamation projects have reduced the area of salinized land in the country from 40 to 28 percent. This brought an average of 81,000 hectares of salinized land back into production every year.

Other conservation techniques promoted by FAO include: small scale irrigation programs, water harvesting and improved rain fed farming as part of an integrated development plan.

In many rural communities, particularly in Africa and Asia, aquaculture inland fishing are important sources of food and income and water quality and quantity are crucial to their success.

The degradation of forest watersheds and drainage of wetlands reduce their capacity to retain and slowly release water. The results are soil erosion, flooding and build up of silt in dams and waterways. Deforested watersheds, especially in tropical regions, need restoration to control flooding.

Degradation of the environment has already had far-reaching effects on water supplies, but it may also be affecting the climate itself. Local changes in rainfall patterns following deforestation have been widely documented. Many scientists now believe global warming is a fact.

According to Dr. Diouf, an important message lies at the heart of the "Water for Life" World Food Day theme: "Water may already be in short supply in some countries, but saving water and making more effective use of it could, in effect, guarantee adequate supplies far into the future."