World Water Crisis: Is There a Way Out?

▪ 2004

Introduction

by Peter RogersOf all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth.

 Such was the dismal state of the world's water supply, as presented in a press release by Koichiro Matsuura, director general of UNESCO, on March 5, 2003. Matsuura later warned, “Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water worldwide per person is expected to drop by a third.” For years there had been warnings of an ever-worsening crisis in the availability of water on planet Earth, and in making 2003 the International Year of Freshwater, the UN gave the issue global prominence. The signs are troubling. Rapid rates of population growth worldwide, rapidly growing income in many countries, and consequent rapid urbanization have led to highly stressed water systems. (See Map—>.) It has been estimated that 2.3 billion people live in areas where there is not enough water available to meet basic needs of drinking, sanitation, hygiene, and food production—defined as 1,700 cu m (2,200 cu yd) per person per year. Some 1.7 billion people live under true water scarcity, where the supply is less than 1,000 cu m (1,300 cu yd) of water per person per year. Under conditions of scarcity, lack of water begins to hamper economic development as well as human health and well-being. All of these troubling signs are magnified by the possibility that we may be entering a period of rapid human-induced climatic change, with very uncertain implications for water-resource management in the future.

      In 2000 the UN General Assembly set a goal “to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by the year 2015,” and in 2002 the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development approved a supplementary goal of halving “the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation.” The UN estimates that 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water (defined as meeting minimal standards of bacterial and chemical quality) and that 2.4 billion people do not have adequate sanitation. Cutting these numbers by 50%—while at the same time increasing food production, reducing poverty, and sustaining the ecosystem—is an ambitious goal. Hasty, ill-conceived responses may only exacerbate the problem, and so the best response at this time may be to think clearly about the nature of the water crisis and to evaluate possible solutions.

Do the Numbers Add Up?

      On the face of it, the current water crisis as presented by the UN is a classic Malthusian dilemma: a geometrically expanding population will soon meet the limits of a fixed supply of water. Yet Malthusian predictions of famine and other catastrophes have been made since the principle was first enunciated in 1798, and no such prediction has ever come true. Take the UN's claim that demand for water is growing at an unsustainable rate. This is due in part to rising population, which is due in turn to increasing life expectancy. Yet rising life expectancies are an effect of improvements in many areas, such as nutrition, hygiene, health services, and income. Could such improvements really have taken place if water supply and sanitation were deteriorating on the scale described by the UN?

      Consider also the UN's drinking water and sanitation goals, described above. In order to reduce by 50% the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, we need an estimate of what the current number is and what it will be over time. Unfortunately, the numbers cited above are very much in question, and even the definitions of access, safe, and sanitation facilities are open to interpretation.

Is the Water Blue, Green, or Brown?

      In 1995 Swedish hydrologist Malin Falkenmark made a revolutionary contribution to hydrologic studies by distinguishing blue water, by which she meant all precipitation that contributes to stream runoff and groundwater and is readily withdrawn for human use, from green water, which is all precipitation that is transpired by vegetation or evaporated from the soil and other surfaces where it falls. Less than 40% of all rain falling each year on the land surface of the globe is blue water, and more than 60% is green water. Brown water, on the other hand, is all blue water that is contaminated by human use and then returned to the surface water system.

      The most obvious path out of the water crisis would involve massive investments in infrastructure to store, transform, and transport blue water—in other words, more storage reservoirs, dams, desalination plants, and groundwater exploitation. Indeed, recent developments in desalination techniques—for instance, at the huge Tampa Bay (Fla.) Seawater Desalination Plant, which began operation in 2003—indicate that any urban area with access to saltwater can have a plentiful freshwater supply at reasonable cost. Another option is to expand the recycling of urban wastewater and industrial water (brown water). Yet another promising option might be to bring supplemental irrigation (blue water) to areas of rain-fed agriculture (green water). Substantial increases in food production could be achieved, and (assuming international trade was favourable) more food could be exported from rain-rich areas to rain-poor areas. This scenario leads to the concept of virtual water.

Consider Virtual Water.

      According to British hydrologist J.A. Allan, a country that imports food crops is essentially importing the water that was used to grow the crops in the exporting country. This virtual water can amount to as much as 1,000 to 5,000 tons of water per ton of crop imported. Virtual water, acquired as food and agricultural products through global food trade, can actually help to overcome disparities in water resources. Instead of spending large sums on irrigation, some countries would be better served by importing food crops from water-rich areas and saving their own dwindling water resources for human consumption.

Water Conflict.

      Some 40% of the global population lives within river basins that are shared by two or more countries. Often one country is water-rich and the other water-poor, or one supports heavily polluting industries while the other does not. Since there is no strong international law governing the resolution of transboundary water disputes, the potential for conflict remains high. Indeed, the World Water Development Report sees poor governance and lack of political will as the most important thread running through all aspects of the water crisis.

Not All Gloom and Doom.

      Into the gloom of the future we should project a little light by considering some successes of the past. Over the past 40 years, water resources and water quality have been greatly improved in Europe and North America. Rivers in the United States no longer spontaneously burst into flame; gross pollution of lakes and rivers has been eliminated; wetlands are protected and improved; and industrial and domestic wastes are under strict abatement levels. These achievements were not the result of immediate crash programs. Instead, they were reached step-by-step, solving the most serious problems before moving on to the next level. Such an approach might also be applicable to less-developed countries, where, unfortunately, many people expect almost instantaneous improvement. Victory in that arena would not be cheap or easy, but the benefits in health, well-being, and peaceful coexistence would be immense.

Peter Rogers is Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and Professor of City Planning at Harvard University.

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