A Word To The Water Wise [View All]

[ensho]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/06/10159/


Well known in Canada for a variety of causes, Maude Barlow has become the Al Gore of the water world



-snip-

Barlow is described as the Al Gore of water, an internationally renowned water champion who, this month, was invited by the driest continent on earth, Australia, to address their water crisis. Last year, a man was killed in an incident of water rage in that country — the first known water murder in the developed world — after a passerby rebuked him for watering his lawn.

-snip-

For five days last week, Sun Media dispelled some commonly held liquid myths in the Canadian psyche, namely the myth of water abundance in Canada. It’s a crusade that has besotted the leader of the country’s biggest advocacy group, the Council of Canadians, since stumbling upon it “by accident” while trying to take Canada’s water off the table in U.S.-Canada free trade negotiations.

-snip-

Every eight seconds, for example, a child dies from drinking dirty water. Every year, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China because of drought. In the developing world, 90% of wastewater is discharged untreated into local rivers. By 2050, 1.7 billion people will live in “dire water poverty” and be forced to relocate.

Water conflicts are already taking shape: Indonesian farmers armed with axes and hammers are fighting for dwindling water supplies. Russia is livid at China for its plans to build an irrigation canal that would siphon off 450 million cubic metres of water from the Irtysh River which they share.

-snip-

- The European Water Network wants to build a pipeline that would divert water from the Austrian Alps to thirsty areas of south Europe.

- Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project is currently the biggest in the world at 5,000-km but draws water from the same aquifer source as Chad, Egypt, Sudan and could lead to conflict.

- Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people with waterborne diseases; the World Health Organization says contaminated water is implicated in 80% of all sickness and disease worldwide.

- Newborns in the global north consume 40 to 70 times more water than in the global south.

- In China, 80% of its major rivers are so degraded they don’t support aquatic life; it’s also home to seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

- Women of South Africa collectively walk the equivalent distance to the moon and back, 16 times a day for water.
------------------------------


you must think about your local source of clean water and what you would do 'if' .