Part Two
The Water Economy

By Sonata Kogan

“Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right.” Kofi Annan
United Nations General Secretary

As it turns out, most of the water that covers this beautiful planet is sea water – 97.5 percent – and three quarters of the remaining 2.5 percent is locked in the polar ice caps, which leaves a tiny little bit to be used for human consumption. Of course when we break down all the different ways that humans use water, the categories become overwhelming.
Fortune magazine said that water would be “the oil of the 21st century,” or “liquid gold,” which will be one of the world’s grandest business opportunities. With that in mind scholars worry that it will cause wars between nations, in ways we can not yet imagine.
As early as 2000 during the Stockholm Water Symposium when world leaders and representatives gathered together to assess the world’s water problems, they recognized that the world in the 21st century would have a much different view when it comes to water. The group predicted that by 2025 as much as two-thirds of the world’s populations will be living with water shortages or absolute water scarcity.
On the Food First website, an environmental leader Paul Hawken was quoted saying, “Given current corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve, wilderness, or indigenous culture will survive the global economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air, and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste,” he said. “There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.”
Other environmentalists add that this problem can be fixed if only we changed the pricing of the water. They argue that if people had to pay a higher price for access to clean water, then it’s value would be better appreciated. However, that suggestion raises another problem, what about all the people around the world who already have limited access to clean water because of poverty issues? Approximately 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of the world’s usable water.
Worldwide, 54 percent of the annual available fresh water is being used. If consumption per person remains steady, by 2025 people could be using 70 percent of the total because of population growth alone. If per capita consumption everywhere reached the level of more developed countries water use would jump to 90 percent of the available water by 2025.
If further privatization of water continues at the rate at which it is occurring right now, the world will only become more divided between those who can afford water and those who cannot afford it. This will force people to choose between daily necessities; such as water and healthcare, and for those people who cannot afford to buy water, they will be left behind widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
Already the lack of clean water in third-world countries causes the death of approximately 5.3 million lives per year – nearly one death every eight seconds. Today 90 percent of the diseases of the world are water related according to the U.S. Office of Science and Technology, so it may seem that human kind has overcome great illnesses such as small pox and other diseases, yet the amount of sicknesses that are created anew because of the lack of sanitized water are countless. The parts of the world that are most affected by these diseases are Africa, most of South America, parts of India, and Asia.
It might seem important for people to know more about the world’s water supply. People in every country should know about these issues, including America.
Governments around the world should publicly voice their concerns and ideas on how to solve these problems. One day we will all wake up and there may very well be a water shortage all around the world, but if some drastic changes are not made immediately, then the world will be shocked to learn that just like gas prices have gone up to three dollars a gallon, and even more in some states, water will have an elevated cost as well.
The promising factor about the state of today’s water is that there is still time and ways to conserve and improve water quality, and provide access to it to more people around the world to prevent disease and needles death. Someone has to take the initiative to make the change, someone at a government level and not simply another NGO.
sonata@revistaelite.com