1. Does the world have enough water?

2. Why are there problems with water?

3. Which countries have the most serious water shortages?

4. What are the consequences of taking too much water?

5. What can be done to anticipate and prevent these problems?

6. What is being done on an international level to address global water problems?

7. Should water be an economic good or a human right?

8. How should water services be provided?

9. What are the views of the Canadian Environmental Law Association on global water issues?

10. How can I find out more about global water issues?

1. Does the world have enough water?

Millions of people in the world today do not have access to clean safe drinking water. According to the United Nations, more than 1.1 billion people cannot find safe water. This is nearly 20 per cent of the world's population.

And the number of people without safe water is expected to rise as the population grows and more water supplies become contaminated or depleted. By 2025, almost 50 per cent of the world's population – around 3.5 billion people -- will be struggling to find enough water to meet their basic needs.

Concern is mounting that climate change could also increase these projections.

Although precipitation may increase in some northern areas as a result of climate change, many tropical and sub-tropical regions, where rainfall is already a problem, will probably get less. As a result, rivers and streams in these areas are likely to have longer, drier periods. Climate change is also predicted to bring extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, typhoons and cyclones. These effects could reduce the amount of freshwater available in countries already facing shortages.

See the Climate Change and Water FAQ

For statistics on world population and water use, see the United Nations' "World Water Development Report" available at: www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/index.shtml

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2. Why are there problems with water?

Only 2 percent of the water available on earth is fresh water, and this water is not evenly distributed around the globe. Many of the largest river basins in the world run through thinly populated regions, while, in many populated areas, there is much less water than people need.

In these parts of the world we are running up water deficits – using more water than is being replaced naturally. This is not only because of an expanding population, but also because of increasing demands for agricultural irrigation, for industry, urbanization and rising living standards. In fact global water consumption rose sixfold in the last century – more than double the rate of population growth.

It is estimated that in 1996, 54 per cent of all the available freshwater in the world was being used. By 2025 this is expected to climb to 70 per cent – just to meet the needs of a growing population. This does not take into account that people in wealthier parts of the world are increasing their individual (per capita) use of water. Already North Americans consume three times the amount of water that Europeans do and more than 30 times the amount used by people in developing countries.

In addition, pollution has aggravated the problems with the world's water supply. Agricultural chemicals, sewage effluents and industrial pollution continue to contaminate freshwater all over the world.

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3. Which countries have the most serious water shortages?

Several countries and regions are already facing critical shortages of water. Most of these countries are in the Near East and North Africa, or in sub-Saharan Africa. Water tables are also falling in northern China, northwest India, parts of Pakistan, the United States, and the Middle East . For example:

• In the important agricultural areas of Northern China there are severe and increasing water shortages. Water extraction has led to falling groundwater tables in the North China Plain. And, so much water is being taken from the Yellow River in northern China that the lower part of the river now dries up several months of the year before it reaches the sea.
• In the United States, too, groundwater is being used at a rate 25 per cent greater than it is being replenished. The huge Ogallala aquifer that lies under 6 states is heavily mined for irrigation in the southwest and has lost more than half its water in some regions. States, such as Arizona and California, will soon face water shortages.
• Twenty countries in North Africa and the Middle East have the most immediate problems. Jordan and Yemen, for example, draw 30 per cent more water from the ground than is being replenished ever year. Many of the Gulf states that have almost run out of freshwater now rely on desalinization -- converting seawater into freshwater – for their daily needs.
• In southeastern Pakistan, for three years farmers have been demonstrating in protest over the lack of water in the southern part of the Indus River, one of the largest rivers in the world. After decades of building dams and canals upstream, problems with water scarcity in the southeastern part of the country have been compounded by recent droughts. In its last eighty miles the Indus River carries only a ribbon of salt water draining back from the Arabian Sea. More than a million acres of once fertile farmland in the river's delta are now covered by the sea, forcing thousands of people into the slums of Karachi .
• In Spain water has also pitted the northern part of the country against the south. The government has announced a plan to re-route the Ebro, Spain 's longest river, through a pipeline running from the north to the more arid southeastern regions. This megaproject will destroy an ecologically important wetland, flood many valleys and villages in the Pyrenees and require the construction of 100 dams.
• Around the world rivers are shared by many countries. Africa has 50 rivers like the Nile that are used by two or more countries. Egypt is almost entirely dependent on the lower Nile River that is also used to its maximum capacity by Sudan and Ethiopia . When any one country withdraws water from the Nile now, it does so at the expense of the other two countries. By necessity these countries must work out agreements over the joint use of these water resources. However, with the populations escalating in all three countries, they could face serious water conflicts in the future.

For more information, see “Solutions for a Water-Short World”, prepared by Population Reports for John Hopkins School of Public Health, at: www.infoforhealth.org/pr/m14edsum.shtml

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4. What are the consequences of taking too much water?

Freshwater is perhaps the most critical resource issue in the world. Unless action is taken to manage the world's water more effectively, water shortages will have many far-reaching and undesirable consequences:

• Lack of safe available water will cause more disease and death.

Nearly 2.4 billion people of world's 6 billion people do not have adequate sanitation, according to the United Nations. They are forced to use contaminated water for drinking, washing and cooking. As a result, water-borne diseases take a high toll, causing illness and death in many developing countries, primarily Asia and Africa. It is estimated that polluted water contributes to the deaths of 5 million children each year from diarrheal diseases.

• Water shortages will result in food shortages around the world.

Powerful diesel and electrically-driven pumps have led to the drilling of millions of wells and the overpumping of water from water tables that are unable to fully recharge and are falling rapidly. As well, many of the world's most important rivers are being used so heavily for irrigation that they no longer flow at the same level with the same volume of water.

Agricultural irrigation accounts for about 70 per cent of the freshwater being used in the world. Because so much water is used for irrigation, as water tables and rivers are depleted, shortages of water will cause food shortages.

Northern China and India are important food-growing regions where water tables are going steadily down. They both produce large quantities of grain and rice. As the water tables drop, these countries will no longer be able to sustain the same level of agricultural production, and the amount of rice and grain being grown will also fall resulting in serious food shortages and possibly famine.

For more information on global water shortages, see press releases by Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project of the Worldwatch Institute at: www.worldwatch.org/

•  Consumption and degradation of water cause damage to the environment, such as loss of habitat and biodiversity.

In virtually the whole world, careless use of water has damaged the natural environment.

Freshwater is needed to sustain marshes and wetlands where millions of species of fish, birds and other wildlife live. As these wetlands are filled in and converted to agriculture or development, valuable habitat is destroyed and species are lost. Over 20 per cent of freshwater fish species are either endangered or vulnerable. Many species have become extinct. California, for example, has lost 90 per cent of its wetlands and, with this loss of habitat, nearly two thirds of its native fish are extinct or in decline.

When freshwater rivers are polluted, they contribute to the deterioration of coastal waters by ushering these contaminants into the sea. When rivers are so exploited that they can no longer flow to the sea, rich river deltas are destroyed and become salty wastelands. The United Nations found that half of all coastal regions, where 1 billion people live, have been degraded through pollution or overdevelopment.

• Disputes over water could lead to political instability and even wars.

As water becomes scarce, it becomes more valuable. Many experts have predicted that water will replace oil as the most likely resource to trigger wars. In water-starved areas like the Middle East, water is a potential source of conflict in a part of the world where there are already many other explosive political problems.

Water resources are not usually the source of war, but there is a long history of conflicts over water resources. Competition between countries, and within countries, for scarce water is already causing tensions. In India, in 1992 over 50 people were killed in riots over the allocation of water for irrigation. These conflicts threaten to escalate unless water management can be improved.

Peter Gleick at the Pacific Institute has collected a chronology of historical data on water-related conflicts, available at: www. worldwater.org

To demonstrate how water is fast being viewed as a potential cause for global conflict, there are academic studies underway, including the Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change & Security Project, called “Navigating Peace: Forging New Water Partnerships”. It can be found at: http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?topic_id =1413&fuseaction=topics.item&news_id=25569

There is also a transboundary Freshwater Dispute Datadase Project that lists transboundary agreements over water available at: www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/

• Water shortages will cause economic problems.

The Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union is a striking example of a freshwater lake that has become an environmental and economic disaster. Two rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea were diverted to desert regions of Uzbekistan to grow cotton, an extremely water-intensive crop. As cotton grew, the Aral Sea shrank losing 75 per cent of its volume. Seaside resorts and fishing villages now sit miles away from the shoreline of the Sea. The fisheries, canneries and shipbuilding industries that once thrived are gone, and a large part of the exposed lakebed has become heavily salted toxic dust. It is predicted that the Aral Sea – at one time larger than all the Great Lakes except Superior -- will be completely gone in ten years, and with it, the livelihood of the whole region.

For more information on the Aral Sea, see: www.envirolit eracy.org/article.php/519.html

• Water problems cause cultural losses and destroy the lives of many aboriginal peoples.

Large projects, such as dams and canals, have boosted agriculture in some areas, often at the expense of people living downstream. Without water for farming or fishing and unable to make a living, many people are forced into cities. These forced migrations destroy the lives of many indigenous peoples and destroy their unique cultures.

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5. What can be done to anticipate and prevent these problems?

In the middle of this century engineered solutions such as dams, canals and pipelines were favoured as solutions to solving water problems. However, the environmental consequences of many of these projects were not considered, and experience has shown that, not only were these projects costly, but the environmental losses were severe. Although there are still pressures for large construction projects in many developing countries, local solutions exist that are affordable, effective and much more easily implemented.

• Alter irrigation and farming practices

Since agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of water use, the greatest potential for conservation is by increasing the efficiency of irrigation. More than half the water used for irrigation is wasted through evaporation or runoff.

Drip irrigation - the use of piping installed on the surface or below ground to deliver water directly to the roots of crops - is one technique that is being used to improve the efficiency of irrigation. Another method - low-energy precision application - delivers water in a more targeted way than sprinkler spray systems. In poorer areas, farmers are going back to ancient methods of collecting water in rainy periods for use in the dry season.

• Reusing water

Treated urban sewage can be recycled by using it to fertilize farm fields. In Calcutta, India, raw sewage is channeled into a system of natural lagoons where fish are raised. The lagoons act as natural water treatment systems. Lagoons and wetlands can be an alternative to modern water treatment systems in poor urban areas of the world.

• Improve land use planning

Paving over natural areas causes increased stormwater runoff, non-point source pollution, and loss of agricultural lands and forests. Land use planning can prevent or mitigate water problems by directing development to areas where it will do the least damage to water resources. Sensitive wetlands, for example, should be protected from urban development.

• Protect sources of drinking water

Many communities are acknowledging the importance of protecting their sources of drinking water as the first step in a multi-barrier approach to safe, clean drinking water. In the United States , the Safe Drinking Water Act requires every community to assess its drinking water source. One of the largest cities in the world, New York City, has developed an extensive agreement with neighbouring communities, and invested millions of dollars, to protect reservoirs in upstate New York that supply drinking water to the city from contamination.

• Practice water conservation

Better management can alleviate the strain on water supplies. Twenty per cent of water is used by industry, and 10 per cent for household use.

Many industries, such as steel, pulp and paper and the chemical industry, are extremely water intensive. Driven by costs to reduce water use, some of these industries have developed processes that recycle and reuse water. In developing countries, such as China , however, industries rarely treat their wastewater, and conservation and recycling are limited. Processes for reusing and recycling water need to be adopted by industries worldwide.

Governments can introduce metering or other pricing structures for municipal water services that promote conservation while still protecting the poor from unaffordable price increases. Individuals can reduce their water use by installing water saving devices such as low-flow showerheads or water-efficient toilets.

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6. What is being done on an international level to address global water problems?

The provision of safe drinking water to desperate communities has become the focus of global, as well as local, debates. Large institutions, like the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Program, are now wrestling with questions of water security -- how to sustain water supplies to developing nations, how to avoid water conflicts, and how to ensure that there is adequate water to grow food for the world's population.

One of the major problems with supplying safe clean drinking water has been the chronic underfunding of water and sewage treatment systems. The United Nations estimates that more than $20 billion a year is needed for more than 10 years to provide clean water and sanitation to the poorest countries in the world. Although this problem is most severe in developing countries, even in North America and Europe governments have failed to provide adequate funding to maintain water delivery systems.

A number of international conferences have been held in the last 15 years to focus attention on these issues and to stimulate action. Many of the conferences have embraced laudable goals but progress towards these goals has been limited. At one of the most influential -- the United Nations Summit held in 2000 -- the United Nations' Millennium Declaration set a goal for the year 2015 to reduce the number of people without access to safe drinking water by half.

The conferences have also become forums for a debate over whether water should be viewed as an economic good or a public trust. Several global water forums in the 1990s called upon the private sector to finance solutions by making water a public good. For example, the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin in 1992 offered the four Dublin principles:

1) fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment,

2) water development and management should be based on a participatory approach involving users, planner and policymakers at all levels,

3) women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water, and

4) water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good.

The World Water Council, a group that includes the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program, governments and global water companies, has sponsored three World Water Forums - the First World Water Forum in Marrakech, Morocco in 1997, the Second in the Hague, the Netherlands in 2000, and the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan in 2003. These forums have promoted a shift in responsibility for water from the public sector to the private sector embracing the idea that private sector management of water would provide improved efficiencies.

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7. Should water be an economic good or a human right?

The transfer of water from public to private ownership has been opposed by many non-governmental organizations and civil society groups present at these conferences. They have raised concerns about the implications of the private sector obtaining contracts that give them control over water resources in exchange for investment. Members of these groups with direct experience of privatized water and wastewater have drafted dissenting statements promoting an alternative vision of water - that water is a basic human right, not a public good.

They have also argued that, if water becomes an article of trade, it would be subject to international trade agreements such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Trade panels could, then, make water management decision without any knowledge of the social or environmental consequences of their actions.

The World Bank has promoted the privatization model by making loans for water services to developing countries conditional on privatization and full cost recovery. Recent high profile failures, however, have put the viability of this model in doubt for two reasons - first, privatization initiatives have met with considerable public opposition, and second, companies have lost millions on their investments in water services.

In Ghana , for example, fierce protests and allegations of corruption forced the World Bank to withdraw from a major contract to provide water for the capital city, Accra .

One of the world's largest water companies, Suez, lost millions of dollars in Argentina after the economy collapsed and its private water concessions were no longer economically viable. It also withdrew from its commitments in Manila, capital of the Philippines, after a currency collapse there caused heavy financial losses.

The world's largest multinational water companies – Suez, Vivendi and Saur – are all now reconsidering their investments, and Suez has already announced that it is withdrawing from further ventures in developing countries because they consider the risks to be too great.

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8. How should water services be provided?

Although 95 per cent of the water treatment facilities around the world have been publicly owned and run, private companies have been increasingly involved in taking over public water supplies, particularly in poor countries.

The willingness of private sector companies to take over public services for profit has led to an examination of different models of delivering water services. Governments around the world, both large and small, are considering the structure of water services and how to make water accessible and affordable.

There are a variety of models in use for governance of water utilities that include a spectrum from fully public to fully private. Different models may be appropriate for different places depending on the local culture and history. For example, a cooperatively run system in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, has been very successful and is considered to be a better service than the privately-managed system in La Paz or the municipally-run system of Cochabamba.

Even in Canada, different models have been adopted across the country. In Edmonton, a corporatized utility, Epcor, owned by the City of Edmonton, runs both water and electricity services for the city and has recently been contracted by the town of Canmore in British Columbia to manage their water supplies. In the region around Vancouver, the municipal governments have joined together to purchase water from a collectively managed water system. One of the oldest examples of a public-private partnership is Hamilton where ten years ago the City Council gave the management and operation of its water and wastewater treatment systems to a private operator. In ten years the contract was carried out by four different companies.

These different models are identified and discussed in a recent report, sponsored by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the University of Toronto 's Munk Institute Program on Water. They are:

• Direct ownership and operation by the municipal government;
• Operation by a municipal board or commission with municipal government ownership;
• Creation of a user-owned cooperative as owner and operator of water utilities;
• Creation of a government-owned Crown corporation as operator;
• Creation of a corporate utility owned either by government or a private company;
• Delegated management of water services;
• Direct ownership and operation by a private company;

The full report, "Good Governance in Restructuring Water Supply: A Handbook", is available at the website of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities at: http://kn.fcm.ca

Or, at the website of the Munk Institute Program on Water at: www.powi.ca

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9. What are the views of the Canadian Environmental Law Association on global water issues?

The Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) has been researching water governance options since the previous government of Ontario announced their intent to privatize Ontario water systems. For Phase II of the Walkerton Commission of Inquiry, CELA was invited by Justice O'Connor to author a report on the benefits of keeping water in public control. This report is entitled "Water Services in Ontario: For the Public, By the Public -- Submission from the Canadian Environmental Law Association in conjunction with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union to Part II of the Walkerton Inquiry".

CELA has also been active for several decades in international water management issues in the Great Lakes Region. Most recently CELA has worked on an advisory committee to the negoiations to draft a legally binding regime shared among the Great Lakes States and Provinces to prevent harmful water withdrawals from the Great Lakes.

See the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Ecosystem FAQ

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10. How can I find out more about global water issues?

For more information on water privatization and the first decade of global water privatization, see the investigative report, "Water Barons", presented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at: www.icij.org,
or at: www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/business.html

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has been monitoring privatization projects in Canada . Information from a union perspective is available on their website at: www.cupe.ca/www/P3Alerts

Information on private/public partnerships from the Canadian business perspective is available at: www.pppcouncil.ca

In the United States, a non-governmental organization, Public Citizen, has the “Water for All Campaign”. Information on public ownership versus privatization can be found on their website at: www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/

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