Issue 62 December 1997
Water Ethics
Water Ethics
The first World Water Forum was held March this year in Marrakesh, Morocco, in which the participants came to the conclusion that unless immediate positive action was taken, a water crisis would be likely to hit around the year 2050.
Although the warnings and the statistics are making this prediction the only logical conclusion possible, the necessary sense of urgency is still lacking. While demand is increasing, the annual fresh water supply available per inhabitant is regularly decreasing and expected to fall to an average 4,800 m by the year 2025 against 7,300 m in 1995.
The main reasons for this decline seem obvious: population explosion, economic progress which is extremely costly in terms of water consumption, wastage and poor management.
The Director General UNESCO, Federico Mayor, calls for water-use strategies and practices, based on the principles of sustainability and human solidarity. We need to create a new water ethics, he says.
The world’s richest people consume the most, while a billion poor people still have no ready access to drinking water; they often have to buy their water from vendors at a price which is 10 to 20 times higher than water sold through regular distribution network
To solve the problems of today’s water consumption, distribution, wastage, land irrigation and sustainable management would cost considerable amounts of money; according to World Bank estimation some $600 to $800 billion over the next ten years. It was stressed that we must all learn right and responsible use of water like a rare and precious possession.
From: UNESCO SOURCES (No 89, 1997), 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75 352 Paris 07 SP, France.
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