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"Huston. We have a problem"
June 17, 2003
By Peter Meingast
First the facts ma’am: just the facts.
- The human body is mostly water.
- Humans cannot live without water.
- Lake Chad - in 1962 this was the
fourth largest lake in Africa. It has shrunk 95%. 20 million people
rely on its water.
- Colorado River- is a mere trickle when it reaches
the Morelos Dam at the US Mexican Border. 25 million people rely
on its water – Seven US states and Mexico
use every drop of its water.
- Yellow River, China - has run out before
it has reached its mouth in 10 of the last 12 years.
- Tigris & Euphrates - claiming prehistoric water rights Syria & Iraq
threatened to blow up Turkish dams. Turkey claims sovereignty over
the headwaters.
- Murray Darling Watershed –covering 1/7th of Australia produces
almost ½ of Australian agricultural income. Watershed Basin
desalinization costs $170 million US yearly in treatment and lost productivity,
and
is Australia’s most important environmental
issue.
- Parana River – or canal? A disaster in the making, the
Hydrovia Project is to straighten the river to enable shipping to go
further inland:
or will it simply drain the basin?
- Vistula River – Is used for
drinking water by the towns and cities it passes despite heavy pollution.
- US
utilities will spend $1.5 Billion annually for 20 years to remove
groundwater contamination (bacteria to Atrazine and MBTE).
- Santa Monica,
California has closed ½ of its wells due to
MBTE levels being excessive.
- Mexico City has pumped out so much of its
groundwater that sections of the city are starting to sink.
- The Ogallala
Aquifer of the Great Plains has dropped by 60 or more feet.
- A resident
of the Kiberia Slum in Nairobi, Kenya pays four times as much for
water than a North American.
- One flush of a toilet in North America
uses as much water as is used in a day by people of the 30 poorest
countries.
- From the time you started to read this until now 12 children
have died (one child dies every 15 seconds):
- Because they did not
have enough clean water or sanitation.
- Today 9,300 people will have
died from diarrhoea, cholera, schistosimiasis and other diseases from
contaminated water or insufficient water for
hygiene.
- 3.4 million people will have thus died this year.
The issue: is pollution, demand and overbuilding. The
hope is that:
Rivers: Renew themselves every 20 days or so. Political
will would/could/can start to turn the situation around.
Aquifers: They supply drinking water for ½ the
USA. They supply drinking water for 1/3rd of the world. They take many
hundreds of years to renew themselves, perhaps thousands.
© Copyright 2003 Galt Western Personnel Ltd. Unless otherwise specified,
you may reprint this article, quote from it, use it in research or projects,
duplicate it or distribute it. Credit of authorship and source MUST be
given to galtglobalreview.com. Ownership of Copyright remains with Galt
Western Personnel Ltd.
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