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Water as a Weapon of War

March 22, 2012 Add Comment Edit

According to a joint report released by US intelligence agencies water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades. Developing countries will experience major difficulties providing adequate water resources for their burgeoning populations. The problem will be compounded by the effects of climate change which are expected to cause widespread drought.

Over the course of the next decade water scarcity is expected to disrupt national and global food markets. Beyond 2022 water will likely be used as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism.

According to the report requested by the State Department, floods, and the scarcity of potable water will combine with poverty, social tension, poor leadership and weak governments to cause instability that could lead the failure of numerous states.

On World Water Day Secretary of State Hilary Clinton unveiled a new US Water Partnership program that aims to share American water management expertise with the rest of the world.

"These threats are real and they do raise serious security concerns," Clinton said.

In the future upstream nations are expected to use water access for political reasons and to exercise control.

The report expressed concerns for the regions of South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and include the Nile in Egypt, Sudan and nations further south, the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq and the greater Middle East, the Mekong in China and Southeast Asia, the Jordan that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the Indus and the Brahmaputra in India and South Asia as well as the Amu Darya in Central Asia.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Protect the US Clean Water Act

March 22, 2012 1 Comment Edit

The Clean Water Act is one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation in the US. It allows millions of American’s to make their waterways safe for drinking swimming and fishing. Sadly, the Clean Water Act is currently under attack.

A growing chorus of big polluters and their Republican cronies in Congress are working to convince the public that the Clean Water Act is a “job killer”—equating environmental protection with economic harships.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act but this has not deterred the Republican controlled US House of Representatives from attempting to gut the Clean Water Act and strip the federal government’s authority to regulate water quality standards. Republicans are also relentlessly trying to undermine environmental laws and the EPA’s power to enforce the law and protect American communities.

One particularly egregious example exempts from the Clean Water Act pesticide applications in and around public waters. Pesticides are designed to be toxic to living things. They contaminate drinking water and are especially harmful to fish and amphibian life.

This bill has passed the House and is now pending in the U.S. Senate. Polluters have money and that buys political influence, but there’s power in numbers. Together, we can fight back.

On this World Water Day, join Waterkeeper Alliance in protecting the Clean Water Act for the health of our communities and the environment.

Tell Congress: Access to Clean Drinking Water is a Basic Human Right! Sign the petition today by clicking here.

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Today, Thursday March 22, 2012 is UN World Water Day. There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050. Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, however most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat: producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.

When a billion people in the world already live in chronic hunger and water resources are under pressure we cannot pretend the problem is ‘elsewhere’. Coping with population growth and ensuring access to nutritious food to everyone call for a series of actions we can all help with:

follow a healthier, sustainable diet
consume less water-intensive products
reduce the scandalous food wastage (30% of the food produced worldwide is never eaten and the water used to produce it is definitively lost!)
produce more food, of better quality, with less water

At all steps of the supply chain, from producers to consumers, actions can be taken to save water and ensure food for all.

Do you know how much water you actually consume every day? How can you change your diet and reduce your water footprint? Join the World Water Day 2012 campaign “Water and Food Security” and find out more!

Click here to download World Water Day 2012 Official Brochure (pdf)
Click here to download World Water Day Ceremony Programme (pdf)
Click here to download Water and Food Security at the 6th World Water Forum
Click here to download World Water Day Advocacy Guide (Produced by UNW-DPAC)

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