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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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