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dam-l Letter: With simple conservation efforts, we will be swimming in water



This letter to the editor appeared in the Washington Times
(http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-letters-2000327182349.htm). It is in
reply to an editorial about the recent World Water Forum in the Hague.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
                                          March 27, 2000



                         With simple conservation efforts, we will be
                         swimming in water

                              Your March 20 article on the world's water
                         ("Rising population faces shrinking water supply,"
                         World) quotes the World Commission on Water for
                         the 21st Century as concluding, "The arithmetic of
                         water does not add up." Unfortunately, the report
                         itself misses aspects of the three R's for water:
                         reduce, reuse and recycle.
                              To put a finer point on the situation, many of the
                         world's water woes are self-induced by waste and
                         pollution. The extra water required to ensure a
                         minimum basic domestic supply to all the world's
                         people in 2025 is only 1 percent of current water
                         use. This extra amount easily could be obtained
                         through conservation. Sandra Postel estimates in her
                         book "The Last Oasis," that farmers could cut water
                         needs by 10 percent to 50 percent, industries by 40
                         percent to 90 percent and cities by 33 percent with
                         no sacrifice of economic output or quality of life.
                         Water delivery still would be required but could be
                         financed with the extra funds saved by avoiding
                         unnecessary and costly large dams.
                              Since 1980, we have heard grand declarations
                         from the World Bank, United Nations and others
                         about the goal of providing water to all. Yet
                         investments speak louder than declarations. Of the
                         approximately $35 billion (in 1993 dollars) that the
                         World Bank invested in water programs from 1981
                         through 1990 ?the United Nation's International
                         Decade on Drinking Water and Sanitation ? less
                         than 5 percent was invested in rural drinking-water
                         projects and about 2.3 percent for water
                         conservation. Compare the more than $10 billion
                         spent on the corruption-riddled Three Gorges Dam
                         project in China with the few thousand dollars spent
                         for community water and sanitation systems.
                         UNICEF has estimated that 80 percent of the 1.2
                         billion people without water could be given essential
                         water services for only 30 percent of the cost by
                         shifting from high-cost to low-cost technologies.
                              Now is the time to redirect efforts and
                         investments ? both public and private ? toward
                         meeting basic needs in cost-effective and sustainable
                         ways.
                              DEBORAH MOORE
                              Senior scientist
                              Environmental Defense
                              Oakland, Calif.
                              The writer is co-director of the International
                         Program at Environmental Defense, an advocacy
                         organization.



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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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