To celebrate World Water Day, Kevin Freedam from Canada used only 25 liters of water on the 22nd, unlike the average North American who uses 330 liters in a single day. He also recruited 31 people to participate in his water-saving campaign, which involved using only 25 liters of water per day for cooking, drinking, cleaning, and personal hygiene throughout the entire month of March. Freedam stated, "People in Canada and the United States don't realize how much water they use and how much they waste every day." He added, "Even for those who don't use much water, using only 25 liters a day is difficult; you can't go without showering or using a dishwasher." He pointed out, "I hope to raise awareness that water is a finite resource." Nearly one billion people lack access to safe and clean water. Recent research indicates that because water demand will exceed sustainable water supply by 40 percentage points, the number of people lacking water resources in a single generation is likely to multiply exponentially. Abundant water resources are no longer available. Humans are using more water than sustainably can sustainably, extracting and utilizing non-renewable water resources that have been stored in aquifers for millennia. "Water cannot be manufactured; it can only be managed and used," says Margaret Catley Carlson, manager of the Canadian Water Network and a world-renowned expert on water resources, as well as a former senior official with the United Nations and the Canadian government. "In many countries and regions, water scarcity is a fundamental problem they face in their development," Carlson states. "Lack of access to water will lead to hunger, disease, political instability, and even armed conflict." "Governments are merely playing the role of delivering water to the public and industry; they must change to a different role, managing water sustainably for the public and the natural environment." "Policymakers do not view water as a precious resource, resulting in waste. For example, leaky water infrastructure projects lose 20 to 50 percent of their intended water delivery. Even in water-poor Southern Hemisphere countries, water is not a top priority because only women or the poor have access to water, and they cannot represent their governments. Instead, limited national funds are spent on priorities like the military," she said. "This is very disheartening," she said. "We can live without oil, but we cannot survive without water." On March 22, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments to invest in improving water resources and sanitation for the poor, particularly in urban areas where the number of people facing water shortages has increased by 20 percent over the past decade. Ban Ki-moon stated, "This is a crisis of governance, demonstrating policy failures and mismanagement, not just a problem of resource scarcity." According to a US-led research report, "Charting Our Water Future," water scarcity is becoming increasingly acute as the world's population and economy grow. By 2030, global water demand will be 40 percent higher than the current available and environmentally sustainable water supply. The report was completed by McKinsey & Company. The report states that "approximately one-third of the world's population is concentrated in developing countries, living in basin regions where water scarcity exceeds that of other areas by more than half." The study points out that agriculture currently accounts for nearly 71 percent of global water use, and water scarcity is inextricably linked to food supply. Inefficient and inappropriate irrigation accounts for a large portion of agricultural water consumption. Arid-climate crops grown in Spain or other arid regions, such as maize, are irrigated extensively. Even low-value crops like sugarcane are sometimes grown using irrigation, a phenomenon that Carlson finds unbelievable. She states, "Weak policies, numerous inappropriate subsidies, such as subsidies for so-called biofuel crops, trade agreements, and inappropriate farming practices are the main reasons for the global overuse of water resources in food production." Domestic water use accounts for only 8% of total water consumption, while industrial water use is another major component. All products contain a certain amount of water, usually described as "actual water consumption" in manufacturing. Nicholas Parker, Chairman of the Cleantech Group, stated, "For example, a desktop computer requires 1.5 tons of water, a pair of denim pants requires up to 6 tons of water; 1 kilogram of wheat requires 1 ton of water… and so on." The "actual water consumption" in global trade exceeds 800 billion tons annually, equivalent to the volume of 10 Nile Rivers. Parker added, "People often don't realize how much water is actually consumed in everything from T-shirts to wine." "Everyone can be a manager of water resources," said Friedman, who gained valuable insights from a month-long water-saving campaign using only 25 liters of water per day, enabling him to conserve water every day for a whole year. "Everyone in North America can reduce their water consumption by 25 liters per day, and I hope people will make a pact to save water," Parker said. —Source: Yahoo, IPS, Environmental Information Center
