New Internationalist 322 
April 2000
The wars of the
next century may well be fought over water.
Apart from air, water is the earth's - and people's - most essential
commodity. But it is becoming scarcer by the day....
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By
the end of this year, global consumption of water will be ten times
greater than it was in 1900. Forty per cent of the world's population
has no access to clean drinking water.
Our
bodies are 70-per-cent water. Without water, we would die within
3 days.
A
person needs a minimum of 5 litres a day for drinking and cooking.
80
per cent of disease in the Majority World is related to poor drinking
water and sanitation.
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Mineral
water:
Nestlé owns Perrier water, Buxton, San Pelligrino, Ashbourne, Contrexéville,
Vittel, Vittelloise.
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Watery
ways
In some
cities water is rationed; in parts of Mumbai (Bombay) in India, families
have to get up between four and five in the morning to collect water.
In
the Sahara desert, more people die from drowning in flash floods than
from lack of water.
The
annual 'Pee Outside Day' in Sigmota, Sweden saves 50 per cent of the
water normally used in toilet flushing.
In
Kunming, China, residents cover outdoor taps with metal boxes and lock
them to prevent theft.
Thailand's
Public Health Ministry tells rain collectors to wait an hour after a
shower starts because the rain in industrial areas is as acid as tomato
juice.
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Why is
the ocean blue?
Because
the sunlight is reflected back off tiny particles in the water. The sea
can also appear green when blue mixes with yellow pigments in microscopic
floating plants. The Black Sea appears black because it has little oxygen
and lots of hydrogen sulphide. The Red Sea was named after the seasonal
blooms of red algae that tint the surface water.
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Drinking,
cooking, washing
Two-thirds of the world's households use a water source outside the
home, and women often walk long distances to collect it.
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Households
with dishwashers, washing machines and sprinklers:
1,000 litres a day |
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Households
with a
piped supply and taps:
100-350 litres a day
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Households
using a public
hydrant in the street:
20-70 litres a day
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Households
using a
stream or distant water:
2-5 litres a day
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Uncool
dams
'Big
dams started well but have ended badly. All over the world there
is a growing movement against dams. In the First World they are
being decommissioned, blown up.
Big
dams are obsolete. They're uncool.They're
undemocratic.
They
are a brazen means of taking water, land and irrigation away from
the poor and giving it to the rich. The reservoirs displace huge
populations of people, leaving them homeless and destitute.'
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Prize-winning
author Arundhati Roy, writing in the Indian magazines Frontline
and Outlook. She estimates that 33 million people have been displaced
by dams in India alone. |
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