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dam-l Water Wars forecast/LS
Water Wars Forecast If Solutions Not Found
NAIROBI, Kenya, January 1, 1999 (ENS) - A
future war over water is a real possibility, according to
Klaus Toepfer, director-general of the
United Nations Environment Programme. Toepfer made his
prediction during an interview that
appears in the January 1 issue of the scientific journal Environmental
Science & Technology, published by the
American Chemical Society.
Klaus Toepfer
Echoing a view he says is
shared by former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali,
Toepfer is "completely
convinced" there will be a conflict over natural resources,
particularly water.
Toepfer, who assumed his
current position with the U.N. in February 1998, is a former
minister of the environment
for Germany.
"Everybody knows that we
have an increase in population, but we do not have a
corresponding increase in
drinking water, so the result in the regional dimension is
conflict," Toepfer says.
Toepfer advocates monitoring worldwide
reserves of drinking water and establishing cooperative
agreements for the use of bodies of
water, including groundwater.
He calls for "economic instruments to
stimulate use of new technologies" to promote water conservation.
Predicting dramatic global population
growth in the future, Toepfer cites the need for an "efficiency
revolution." Any solution for addressing
this growth must be linked with "new technologies that
concentrate more on efficient use of
limited natural resources," he says.
These technologies
must be available, "on preferential terms, to developing
countries," Toepfer says.
This view is also
shared by French President Jacques Chirac who warned of
future water wars
last spring. At the international conference on Water and
Sustainable
Development hosted by the French government at UNESCO
Headquarters, the
Organization's Director-General Federico Mayor and
Chirac, warned that,
without international co-operation, dwindling water
resources could
threaten development and world peace.
Speaking to
government ministers from 80 countries, officials from
international, local
and non-governmental organisations, business leaders
and scientists,
Mayor cautioned that over-use, due to population growth,
waste and pollution
are turning water into a scarce resource.
"As it becomes increasingly rare, it
becomes coveted, capable of unleashing conflicts. More than petrol or
land, it is over water that the most
bitter conflicts of the near future may be fought," the UNESCO leader
said.
A stern water warning was also voiced at
the conference by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, now
president of the environmental watchdog
group Green Cross International.
"Based on population projections alone,
some 33 countries are expected to have chronic water
shortages by 2025," Gorbachev said.
"Moreover, such projections do not take into account the possibility
that climate change could eventually
further exacerbate water shortages.
Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant
Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Gorbachev will be one of the keynote speakers at a
Middle East regional water forum scheduled for
March 10 and 11, 1999 in Amman, Jordan. The
geographic focus will be on solutions that will
provide adequate fresh drinking water for the arid
region encompassing Israel, Jordan and the
Palestinian Areas of West Bank and Gaza.
Other speakers addressing the water problems of
the dry region include the conference host H.R.H.
The Crown Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan;
Yasser Arafat, President of the
Palestinian Authority; Shimon Peres, president of the Peres Center for
Peace; Ariel Sharon, Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Israel; and James Wolfensohn, president of the World
Bank.
The forum will attempt to identify viable
strategies to increase the effective regional supply, including
development of new supplies from seawater
desalination.
Many regions and countries are expected
to expand their seawater desalination capacity in the near
future. Nuclear energy to power seawater
desalination is a growing interest among water-scarce nations
according to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).
IAEA studies have shown that nuclear
energy would be competitive with fossil energy for desalination in a
range of situations. This applies in
particular to countries which lack cheap indigenous energy resources,
need large amounts of desalted water, and
have the means and infrastructure to install a medium size
nuclear power plant, the agency said in a
1997 statement.
An international symposium on
"Desalination of Seawater with
Nuclear Energy" was held in May 1997 in
Taejon, South Korea. The
symposium was organized by the IAEA in
co-operation with the
International Desalination Association
and the Global Technology
Development Centre. Hosted by the Korea
Atomic Energy
Research Institute, it was attended by
about 250 participants from
about 30 nations and international
organizations.
Japan and Kazakstan provided detailed
information about their
experience with nuclear desalination
complexes. Korea reported its
programmes in technology development and
design for a 330 MW
reactor for co-generation of heat and
electricity that could also be
used for desalination of seawater.
India presented its plan to make some
design changes to the
existing pressurized heavy water reactors
at Madras Atomic Power
Station to make them useable for
desalination. Russia reported on
its small reactor plants for desalination.
New potential sites for nuclear
desalination in China were identified.
Morocco reported the status of its
pre-project study on nuclear desalination, which includes a 10 MW
heating reactor to be supplied from China
for a desalination complex to be built at Tan-Tan in South
Morocco.
Work is ongoing around the world to solve
the looming water crisis with desalination. The Middle East
Desalination Research Center based in
Muscat, Oman was formed in 1997. It aims to raise the standard of
living in the Middle East and elsewhere
by cost reduction and quality improvement in the technical
processes of water desalination.
© Environment News Service (ENS) 1998.
All Rights Reserved.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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