UN Calls Water Top Priority

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_on_re_eu/world_forum_water_scarcity

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 24, 10:50 PM ET

DAVOS, Switzerland - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Thursday to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies.

He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought — and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan.

"Too often, where we need water we find guns instead," Ban said. "Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon."

He said a recent report identified 46 countries with 2.7 billion people where climate change and water-related crises create "a high risk of violent conflict" and a further 56 countries, with 1.2 billion people "are at high risk of violent conflict." The report was by International Alert, an independent peacebuilding organization based in London.

Ban told the VIP audience that he spent 2007 "banging my drum on climate change," an issue the Forum also had as one of its main themes last year. He welcomed the focus on water this year saying the session should be named: "Water is running out."

"We need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change," he said. "There is still enough water for all of us — but only so long as we can keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly."

Ban said he will invite world leaders to "a critical high-level meeting" in September to focus on meeting U.N. development goals — including cutting by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 — particularly in Africa.

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This is the crisis I have been talking and warning about for the last 10 years and writing about because it is so important to me because it is the environmental crisis of this generation. And as this article also states, water is the new oil of the 21st century. If we do not come together this year to make water scarcity, waste, inept management, wasteful and outdated agricultural practices, and our contribution to it by our own selfish behavior regarding precipitating climate change a top priority, droughts and water shortages will lead to widespread famine, floods, desertification, and climate refugees who will do what they must do to get the water they need to survive. So I thank the UN for putting this out here, only I do not believe Coca Cola and Nestle will ever be a real part of the solution to this until they stop the wasteful practice of bottling water for profit and working to privitize public water sources that benefit them at the expense of the poor. Will they then see the light and see something other than their own profits as more important in this? For me that is the only action that will show their sincerity. The question is: Would you kill to get water? Let's hope we never have to find out.