Our world's troubled water
- Global water use has more than doubled since 1950
- One person in six has no regular access to safe supplies
- Contaminated water gives 200 million people a year diseases
- Agriculture uses about 75% of global water consumption and industry 20%; much of it wasted
Against the background of such alarming statistics, the third World Water Forum has opened in Kyoto. The event brings together about 10,000 delegates from 150 countries to debate solutions to the crisis facing more than one billion people without access to clean water. However, some pressure groups say the forum is dominated by private corporations who favour projects such as dams instead of simpler technology which could be used to conserve water for the world's poor. Inevitably overshadowed by the Iraq crisis, the conference says its discussions during the coming week will have far more impact on mankind in the 21st Century than current events in the Middle East.
Speaking of water and the Middle East, Peter Gleick, brother of the excellent journalist James Gleick, has compiled a fascinating
Water Conflict Chronology over at The World's Water. Of course, water conflict is as old as mankind, but every chronology needs a starting point and Gleick picks 1503, when Leonardo da Vinci and Machievelli planned to divert the Arno river away from Pisa during a conflict between Pisa and Florence. Students of domestic US terrorism might be interested to learn, by the way, that the Los Angeles Valley aqueduct suffered repeated bombings in 1924 in an effort to prevent diversions of water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. The chronology lists lots of conflicts, but the ones involving Iraq are more relevant than ever and I'm sure military planners on all sides involved in the impending conflict will be factoring how best to use the region's water as a weapon and a target. Here's a quick overview of the past 30 years:
1974: Iraq threatens to bomb the al-Thawra dam in Syria and massed troops along the border, alleging that the dam had reduced the flow of Euphrates River water to Iraq.
1975: As upstream dams are filled on the Euphrates, Iraqis claim that the flow reaching its territory is "intolerable" and asks the Arab League to intervene. Syrians claim they are receiving less than half the river's normal flow and pull out of an Arab League committee formed to mediate the conflict. Syria closes its airspace to Iraqi flights and both Syrian and Iraq reportedly transfer troops to their joint border. Saudi Arabia successfully mediates the conflict.
1981: Iran claims to have bombed a hydroelectric facility in Kurdistan, thereby blacking out large portions of Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq War.
1980-1988: Iran diverts water to flood Iraqi defence positions.
1993-present: To quell opposition, Saddam Hussein reportedly poisons and drains the water supplies of southern Shiite Muslims, the Ma'dan. The European Parliament and UN Human Rights Commission deplore use of water as weapon in region.
The World's Water, a precious resource — the website and the stuff itself.
