The Threats to the World's Fresh Water Supply

There are many problems that are associated with the world’s freshwater supply. These problems stem around two main issues: availability and fitness to drink. First, even though the Earth has a great deal of water, only about 3% of this supply is made up of freshwater. (Kaufman and Franz, 1993, 281). Of this amount 75% is locked up in the polar ice caps, a little less than 25% is collected in ground water sources, and the remaining .5% is on the surface of the earth in lakes, rivers, streams, and in the atmosphere. (1993). The availability of freshwater is also limited by the water’s distribution. Not all areas of the world have adequate supplies, or access to freshwater. Infrequent, or seasonal freshwater delivery through rain and other precipitation makes the dry seasons of the year difficult for people, who must travel great distances to gather water from communal wells, riverbeds, or oases to meet their freshwater needs. Droughts also decrease the availability of freshwater.

 The staggering effects of little or no freshwater in an area for an extended period of time can be seen in Ethiopia that went from a fertile and productive valley to a dry area plagued with famine and disease. In addition to natural restrictions of freshwater supplies, agriculture also impacts the amount of freshwater that is available for use. Conflicts over water are common as people with different water use interests all try to get as large a share of the scarce water supply as possible.

This conflict can be seen in the United States' Southwest. Here access to the water found in the Colorado River is being argued over by farmers, ranchers, conservationists, recreationalists, homeowners, and commercial industries like the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Currently, the freshwater supply in the world is being stretched as far as it can go, and as the population increases the demand for freshwater will only increase. It is estimated that the demand for freshwater will increase 1.7 trillion gallons a year for every 8 million people that are added to the human population.

The second issue that impacts the world’s freshwater supply is its fitness to drink. Many factors impact freshwater’s drinkability. First water pollution is a major issue that has degraded many water sources’ fitness. Pollution from raw sewage disposal in water systems, trash dumping, excessive sediments from soil erosion, chemical waste being dumped into drains and water systems, and petroleum pollution from people pouring used oil down storm drains. All of these pollutants impact the fitness of a freshwater source to be used as drinking water, and in some cases even for agricultural purposes. Overuse of a water source can also impact its fitness to use by reducing the level of water in the source. As the water level is reduced, the nutrients and salinity concentrates and makes it less fit for consumption. For example, the Aral Sea’s mineral content has increased 300% because of irrigation and windblown sediments and sand being blown into the water. (Kaufman and Franz, 1993, 29-94).

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/13514/the_threats_to_the_worlds_fresh_water.html?cat=50

Earth needs users' guide to protect it from people

OSLO (Reuters) - A new users' guide is needed to help protect the Earth from dangerous changes such as global warming and extinctions of animals and plants caused by humans, scientists said.

A group of 28 experts suggested nine key areas, such as freshwater use, chemical pollutants or changes in land use, where governments could define limits to ensure a "safe operating space for humanity."

"Today we are clearly driving development in the world blindfolded," Johan Rockstrom, leader of the study and director of the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University, told Reuters of a lack of international guidelines.

"We are not considering the risks that there are deep holes we can drive into," he told Reuters. The call, for setting "planetary boundaries," was published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

Rockstrom said there were signs human activities had already pushed the world into the danger zone because of global warming, a high rate of extinctions of animals and plants and pollution caused by nitrogen, mainly used in fertilizers.

Among limits, they suggested capping the percentage of global land area converted to cropland at 15 percent. At the moment, the percentage is 11.7 percent, they said.

They added that concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, should be limited to 350 parts per million of the atmosphere -- below current levels of 387 ppm. Human freshwater use should be capped at 4,000 square km (1,545 sq mile) a year -- against 2,600 sq km now.

CREDITABLE ATTEMPT

Nature said in an editorial the proposed indicators were a "creditable attempt" to quantify limits on human use of the planet. However, it noted, for instance, that fertilizers caused pollution yet helped feed millions of people.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the study, said there were growing risks of abrupt and possibly irreversible changes.

"Observations of an incipient climate transition include the rapid retreat of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, melting of almost all mountain glaciers around the world, and an increased rate of sea-level rise in the past 10-15 years," he said.

The scientists said the current relatively stable temperatures of the Holocene era since the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago was under threat from human -- or anthropogenic -- activities.

"Since the Industrial Revolution, a new era has arisen, the Anthropocene, in which human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change," they wrote.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE58M69Q20090923

How Much Human Activity Can Earth Handle?

The scientific name is the Holocene age, but climatologists like to call our current climatic phase the Long Summer. The history of the Earth's climate has rarely been smooth. From the moment life began on the planet billions of years ago, the climate has swung drastically and often abruptly from one state to another — from tropical swamp to frozen ice age. Over the past 10,000 years, however, the climate has remained remarkably stable by historical standards, not too warm and not too cold — Goldilocks weather. That stability has allowed Homo sapiens, numbering perhaps just a few million at the dawn of the Holocene, to thrive; farming has taken hold and civilizations have arisen. Without the Long Summer, that never would have been possible.

But as human population has exploded over the past few thousand years, the delicate ecological balance that kept the Long Summer going has become threatened. The rise of industrialized agriculture has thrown off Earth's natural nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, leading to pollution on land and water, while our fossil fuel addiction has moved billions of tons of carbon from the land into the atmosphere, heating the climate ever more.

Now a new article in the Sept. 24 Nature argues that the safe climatic limits in which humanity has blossomed are more vulnerable than ever, and that unless we recognize our planetary boundaries and stay within them, we risk total catastrophe. "Human activities have reached a level that could damage the systems that keep Earth in the desirable Holocene state," writes Johan Rockstrom, the executive director of the Stockholm Environmental Institute and the author of the Nature article. "The result could be irreversible and, in some cases, abrupt environmental change, leading to a state less conducive to human development."

Regarding climate change, for instance, Rockstrom proposes an atmospheric carbon concentration limit of no more than 350 parts per million (p.p.m.) — meaning no more than 350 atoms of carbon for every million atoms of air. (Before the industrial age, levels were at 280 p.p.m.; currently they're at 387 p.p.m. and rising.) That, scientists believe, should be enough to keep warming below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, and below a climatic tipping point that could lead to the wide-scale melting of polar ice sheets, swamping coastal cities. "Transgressing these boundaries will increase the risk of irreversible climate change," writes Rockstrom.

That's the impact of breaching only one of nine planetary boundaries that Rockstrom identifies in the paper. Other boundaries involve freshwater overuse, the global agricultural cycle and ozone loss. In each case, he scans the state of science to find ecological limits that we can't violate, lest we risk passing a tipping point that could throw the planet out of whack for human beings. It's based on a theory that ecological change occurs not so much cumulatively, but suddenly, after invisible thresholds have been reached. Stay within the lines, and we might just be all right.

In three of the nine cases Rockstrom has pointed out, however — climate change, the nitrogen cycle and species loss — we've already passed his threshold limits. In the case of global warming, we haven't yet felt the full effects, Rockstrom says, because carbon acts gradually on the climate — but once warming starts, it may prove hard to stop unless we reduce emissions sharply. Ditto for the nitrogen cycle, where industrialized agriculture already has humanity pouring more chemicals into the land and oceans than the planet can process, and for wildlife loss, where we risk biological collapse. "We can say with some confidence that Earth cannot sustain the current rate of loss without significant erosion of ecosystem resilience," says Rockstrom.

The new paper offers a useful way of looking at the environment, especially for global policymakers. As the world grapples with climate change this week at the U.N. and the G20 summit, some clearly posted speed limits from scientists could help politicians craft global deals on carbon and other shared environmental threats. It's tough for negotiators to hammer out a new climate change treaty unless they know just how much carbon needs to be cut to keep people safe. Rockstrom's work delineats the limits to human growth — economically, demographically, ecologically — that we transgress at our peril.

The problem is that identifying those limits is a fuzzy science — and even trickier to translate into policy. Rockstrom's atmospheric-carbon target of 350 p.p.m. has scientific support, but the truth is that scientists still aren't certain how sensitive the climate will be to warming over the long-term — it's possible that the atmosphere will be able to handle more carbon, or that catastrophe could be triggered at lower levels. And by setting a boundary, it might make policymakers believe that we can pollute up to that limit and still be safe. That's not the case — pollution causes cumulative damage, even below the tipping point. By focusing too much on the upper limits, we still risk harming the Earth. "Ongoing changes in global chemistry should alarm us about threats to the persistence of life on Earth, whether or not we cross a catastrophic threshold any time soon," writes William Schlesinger, the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, in a commentary accompanying the Nature paper.

But as the world attempts to break the carbon addiction that already has it well on the way to climate catastrophe, more clearly defined limits will be useful. But climate diplomats should remember that while they can negotiate with each other, ultimately, they can't negotiate with the planet. Unless we manage our presence on the Earth better than we have so far, we may soon be in the last days of our Long Summer.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1925718,00.html

Water: How much do we have?

Global

- About 70% of the earth is covered in water.

- The total amount of water in the world is approximately 1.4 billion km3, of which 97.5% is saltwater and 2.5% is fresh water.

 - Of the 35 million km3 of freshwater on earth, about 24.4 million km3 are locked up in the form of glacial ice, permafrost, or permanent snow. Groundwater and soil moisture account for 10.7 million km3. Freshwater lakes and marshlands hold about 0.1 million km3. Rivers, the most visible form of fresh water account for 0.002 million km3 or about less than 0.01% of all forms of fresh water.

 - The major source of fresh water is evaporation off the surface of the oceans, approximately 505 000 km3 a year. Another 72 000 km3 evaporates from land surfaces annually.

- Approximately 80% of all precipitation (about 458 000 km3) falls on the oceans, the remaining 20% (119 000 km3) falls over land. The difference between precipitation onto land surfaces and evaporation from those surfaces is runoff and groundwater recharge – approximately 47 000 km3 per year.

- Brazil is the country with the most renewable fresh water. Canada is third after Russia.

- Ninety-nine percent of surface freshwater by volume is in lakes and only one percent in rivers.

- Of all fresh water not locked up in ice caps or glaciers, some 20% is in areas too remote for humans to access and of the remaining 80% about three-quarters comes at the wrong time and place – in monsoons and floods – and is not always captured for use by people. The remainder is less than 0.08 of 1% of the total water on the planet. Expressed another way, if all the earth's water were stored in a 5-litre container, available fresh water would not quite fill a teaspoon.

 - There are some 100 million lakes between 1 hectare (0.01 km2) and 1 km2 in area and about one million lakes which are greater than 1 km2 in area.

 - The lake with the largest surface area in the world is the Caspian Sea (about 436 000 km2) followed by Lake Superior (about 82 300 km2).

 - The deepest lake is Lake Baikal (about 1 700 metres deep) followed by Lake Tanganyika (about 1 400 metres deep).

- The largest river basin in the world, by drainage basin size and by discharge, is the Amazon.

- The Nile River is the world's longest river. It flows 6 670 kilometres from its headwaters to the Mediterranean Sea.

- Although 60% of the world's population live in Asia, the continent has only 36% of the world's water resources.

- Water stress begins when there is less than 1 700 m3 of water per person per year for all major functions (domestic, industrial, agricultural, and natural ecosystems) and becomes severe when there is less than 1 000 m3 per person.

 - Currently, 600 million people face water scarcity. Depending on future rates of population growth, between 2.7 billion and 3.2 billion people may be living in either water-scarce or water-stressed conditions by 2025.

 - At times, the flow is so low in some of the world's largest rivers – the Amu Darya and Syr Darya in central Asia, the Yellow River in China, the Colorado River in the United States, the Indus River between India and Pakistan – that they do not reach the sea.

 - The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest lake; now it's the site of aquatic ruin. It's lost two-thirds of its surface area, some 60 000 fishing jobs have been wiped out, and people living in the salty and toxic surroundings suffer from a variety of ailments.

 - The world's wetland area was halved during the 20th century. In some locations wetlands are worth as much as $20 000 per hectare (0.01 km2).

 - The most devastating floods have occurred on the Yellow River in China. In 1887, 900 000 lives were lost and in 1938, 870 000. In each of 1911, 1931, and 1935 at least 100 000 lives were lost in the Yangtze River basin in China.

 - More than 2 200 major and minor water-related natural disasters occurred in the world between 1990 and 2001. Asia and Africa were the most affected continents, with floods accounting for half of these disasters.

 Canada

 - Annually, Canada's rivers discharge 105 000 m3/s, 7% of the world's renewable water supply.

 - Almost 9%, or 891 163 km2, of Canada's total area is covered by freshwater.

 - The Canadian portion of the Great Lakes occupies nearly 10%, or 87 500 km2, of the 891 163 km2 freshwater area in Canada.

 - Approximately 60% of Canada's fresh water drains to the north, while 85% of the population lives along the southern border with the United States.

 - Canada has about 25% of the world's wetlands – the largest wetland area in the world.

 - Wetlands totaling an area of more than 1.2 million km2 (127 million hectares) cover about 14% of the land area of Canada.

 - Henderson Lake, British Columbia, has the greatest average annual precipitation in Canada – 6 655 millimetres. In contrast Eureka, in Nunavut, has the least average annual precipitation – 64 millimetres.

 - An estimated area of 200 000 km2, or about 2% of the country's area is covered by glaciers and icefields.

 - The largest river basin in Canada is the Mackenzie based on drainage area, discharge and length.

 - The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh, surface water on earth, containing roughly 18 percent of the world's fresh surface water.

 - The Great Lakes Basin (shared with the United States) is the world's largest freshwater lake system.

 - The largest lake entirely in Canada is Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, measuring 31 328 km2.

 - The deepest lake in Canada is Great Slave Lake, N.W.T., 614 metres.

 - There are an estimated 2 million lakes in Canada covering approximately 7.6% of Canada's land area.

 - Canada has more lake area than any other country in the world.

 - There are more than 31 000 freshwater lakes in Canada that are larger than 3 km2 in area; about 560 are more than 100 km2. Many smaller lakes dot the landscape.

- The most common causes of flooding in Canada are water backing up behind ice jams and the rapid melting of heavy winter snow cover, particularly when accompanied by rainfall. Heavy rainfall itself can also cause floods.

- The 1996 Saguenay basin storm and associated flood in Quebec led to 10 deaths and over $1500 million in damages.

 - The 1997 Red River flood in Manitoba caused damages estimated at approximately $815 million.

 - As a general rule, when water velocity doubles, its erosive power increases four-fold and its capacity to carry sediments increases by 64 times. Eroded sediments are eventually deposited in wetlands, lakes, or river pools, reducing channel capacity and affecting fish habitat.

- Dry regions in the interior of British Columbia and in the southern Prairies have severe soil moisture deficits at some time during most summers and can suffer from long-term drought conditions. These areas hold most of the 1 million hectares (10 000 km2) of irrigated cropland in Canada, with Alberta alone accounting for 60%.

 - The development of storage reservoirs and dugouts is essential to maintaining adequate year-round water supplies, particularly in the drier parts of the country. There are about 155 000 dugouts and 21 500 reservoirs in western Canada to supply sufficient water for rural areas.

 - Dugouts are typically artificial ponds that are 4 to 6 metres deep with a capacity of 2000 to 6000 m3, designed to provide a 2-year water supply with allowance for evaporation losses and ice formation.

 - In 2004, about 28% of Canadian municipalities with water distribution systems reported problems with water availability within the previous five years.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/en/info/facts/e_quantity.htm

Freshwater trends: Will future needs be met?

Despite improvements in the efficiency of water use in many developed countries, the demand for fresh water has continued to climb as the world's population and economic activity have expanded. From 1940 to 1990, withdrawals of fresh water from rivers, lakes, reservoirs, underground aquifers, and other sources increased by more than a factor of four. Increases in irrigation and, to a lesser extent, industrial uses of water have been the largest sources of this growing demand. At the same time, contamination by pollutants has seriously degraded water quality in many rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources, effectively decreasing the supply of fresh water. The result has been increased pressure on freshwater resources in most regions of the world and a lack of adequate supplies in some localities. Water experts and international institutions warn that water shortages could become critical in some regions. In the absence of significant changes in policy and far more effective management of water resources, this could pose serious long-term obstacles to sustainable development in many countries.

The supply of fresh water in a region is limited by the dynamics of the hydrological cycle, in which sea water evaporates and falls over land as precipitation. The renewable supply of water is defined as the surface water runoff from local precipitation, the inflow from other regions, and the groundwater recharge that replenishes aquifers. Because water can, in principle, be reused many times, the availability of water for human use depends as much on how it is used and how water resources are managed as on any absolute limits. With proper treatment, for example, the water returned to rivers by upstream users is also available to downstream users. Nonetheless, the renewable supply is an important constraint to the sustainable use of water within a region. Apart from human use, water is also needed to sustain the natural ecosystems found in wetlands, rivers, and the coastal waters into which they flow.

Pumping water from underground aquifers faster than they can be recharged or diverting so much water from wetlands or rivers that freshwater ecosystems fail are clearly unsustainable practices. To avoid conflict where water resources are shared, upstream and downstream users must agree on how water is to be allocated. Unfortunately, examples of unsustainable water uses can be found in virtually every region--in the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer in the United States and similar overpumping of other aquifers in parts of North Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia; in the diversion of river water from the dying Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and from the Florida Everglades; in the excessive withdrawals that are causing intrusions of sea water into deltas and coastal aquifers in China, Viet Nam, and the Gulf of California; in the uncontrolled flow of sewage and fertilizer runoff that is hastening eutrophication in some temperate and tropical lakes and many coastal seas; and in the potential for conflict over water in areas such as the Nile River delta, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

http://archive.wri.org/page.cfm?id=984&z

Freshwater: Earth's Life Force

From Discovery Channel

Imagine an entire planet where the universe's finest liqueur is boiled out of fermenting seas by a brilliant yellow star, distilled in the skies and rained back down on the land, forming lakes and rivers of the inebriating brew. The planet, of course, is Earth, and the liqueur is freshwater.

Without freshwater Earth's land masses would be barren, the continents might be in different locations, mountains would be far taller, and life virtually impossible. Earth's very character and appearance are the result of the planet being fairly drunk on this precious grog.

Liquid Destroyer

Luckily for us land animals, Earth can't help but make freshwater. It happens when the sun heats and evaporates water from the oceans. The salts and other minerals are left behind, creating pure water vapor in the air. As it is carried higher to cooler air, it condenses and makes clouds, which can produce rain or snow when forced higher over land.

That's the water cycle, of course. It's something taught to every schoolchild — for good reason. Not only does the water cycle give us the water we drink and use to grow food, it is also the carver of coastlines, sculptor of mountains and the burier of seas. It might even play a critical role in plate tectonics, the process that keeps creating and destroying crustal plates that make up the surface of the planet.

One of the more dramatic examples of what a few gazillon raindrops and snowflakes of freshwater can do over time is the Grand Canyon. Over the past 5 million years, the Colorado River has just as steadily cut its way through the constantly bulging Colorado Plateau, making the mile-deep, 18-mile-wide, 200-mile-long Grand Canyon along the way.

By moving such gigantic masses of rock from one place to another, freshwater also removes weight from the Earth's crust in one place and weighs down others. By wearing away rocks of the Himalaya, for instance, rain and snow make the mountains lighter and actually speed up the rate at which the range buoys upward on the more plastic layer below the crust — the zone called the mantle.

In turn, by affecting the pressure in the mantle, it's thought by some geophysicists that currents can be generated in the mantle that influence how, when and where tectonic plates move. This top-down theory to what drives plate tectonics makes freshwater a central player in the making of every inch of Earth's surface today.

Watery Creator

But freshwater does far more than move rocks around. Some of Earth's most unusual and beautiful living landscapes are created and kept thriving by freshwater. The verdant and little explored Tepuis of Venezuela, for instance, are islands in the sky, loaded with species found nowhere else. These plateaus and mountains are perpetually bathed in freshwater. In this unique ecoregion, it's virtually always raining or socked in by thick, moisture-laden clouds.


Life in such torrentially wet places evolves to take quick advantage of their decaying neighbors. Wait too long, for instance, and the next downpour will wash away what nutrients there are. In such a place, mold, fungus and large trees with broad, shallow roots form the basis of the food chain.

Downstream from these water-rich places, forests and other highland rivers fill broad basins with forest waste and worn rock, piling up tens of thousands of feet of mud and silt for millions of years. The Mississippi River sediments deposited along the Gulf Coast are now so heavy that they are squeezing Earth's mantle. The sedimentation is believed to be one of the reasons New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana are subsiding and becoming more vulnerable to hurricanes and sea level rise.

Grace of Water

Despite its great influence, all the freshwater that makes up the lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, marshes, potholes, bogs, fens, mires, swamps, ponds, billabongs, lagoons, mud holes and groundwater of Earth has only recently been accounted for. Monitoring where water goes is a big job and can only really be done affordably for the entire planet from space.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites do this task by measuring local changes in gravity over time. All matter — including water — has mass and gravity. So when there's less water in a particular area, its gravity is slightly less. More water — whether in lakes, streams or underground — means the gravity is greater. GRACE has now managed to watch as the continents swell and shrink with water on a seasonal basis — showing Earth's water cycle actually at work on a global scale.

Bad & Good News

Freshwater, however, is in trouble. Human activities have polluted and depleted freshwater in many parts of the world. Wetlands have been drained to build and farm on. Nutrient levels in many rivers and streams are so high from sewage, agricultural and industrial runoff, air pollution, and erosion that they are choked and starved of oxygen — bad news for fish and invertebrates that make for healthy streams and lakes.

The good news is that conservationists have succeeded in protecting more than 800 of the world's most vital wetlands all over the globe. It's even profitable. A 1991 study by the International Institute for Environment and Development found that a wetland in the arid north of Nigeria provided 30 times more profit from fish, firewood, cattle grazing and natural crops than if the water had been diverted to a large agricultural project. That's freshwater for you — it's heady stuff.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/planet-earth/guide/fresh-water.html

Fresh water scarcity demands fresh ideas

A growing world population has led to rising demand for fresh water to ensure a growing supply of food and to meet rising nutrition demands. Where will this water come from? A new publication co-sponsored by CGIAR sheds some light on the narrowing options. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report.

Imagine a canal 10 meters deep, 100 meters wide, and 7.1 million kilometers long - long enough to encircle the globe 180 times. That is the amount of water it takes each year to produce food for today's 6.5 billion people. The projected increase of between 2 and 3 billion people over the next four decades would mean increasing the length of this canal by another few million kilometers to everyone fed. Even if there were resources and technology to do this - and that is itself debatable - it's unlikely that there would be sufficient fresh water to fill this extended canal.

This startling revelation comes courtesy the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA), an ambitious program co-sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) that pulled together the work of 700 experts over a five year period. The program took stock of the past 50 years of water development to determine what future actions would be needed for the next 50 years. Packaged in some 700 pages, the voluminous report titled Water for food, Water for life (Earthscan, 2007) presents a careful mix of the good and bad news.

Limited options

First, the bad news. Fresh water usage from existing river basins has already been stretched to the limits, with no possibility of more of it being available to produce the additional food the world may need over the next decades. This future scenario looks gloomy when one takes into account that 850 million people, over 50 per cent of them living in South Asia, are food insecure even at the current levels of food production; raising their consumption levels would itself entail considerable additional need for fresh water.

But there is some good news as well - producing additional food would be possible if hitherto neglected rainfed areas could be better tapped, and if greater focus is turned on low-yielding lands. Though the report avoids getting into the political dimension of food access and distribution, it throws words of caution around inter-basin water transfers (like India's proposed river-linking project) as well as expansion of hydraulic infrastructure to increase irrigation coverage. Instead, the CA findings contend that the world's food needs over the next few decades could be met by bringing the production levels of the world's low-yield farmers up to 80 per cent of what high-yield farmers get from comparable land. In effect, it calls for rainwater harvesting through effective watershed management to achieve this goal.

However, the situation on the ground is very different. Simply put, policy impetus for watershed management hasn't translated into effective results during the last three decades. A case in point is the finding of the Parthasarathy Committee, constituted by India's Ministry of Rural Development. The committee's report, released in January 2006, concluded that "... watershed programs have been bureaucratically driven and mechanically implemented with focus on 'outlays rather than outcomes' and 'accounting rather than accountability'." The Food & Agriculture Organisation, in its recent regional assessments of watershed programs, argues that many watershed programs suffer from inherent inertia to transform the rainfed areas.

Nonetheless, the authors of the Comprehensive Assessment are convinced that options to increase future food production are indeed limited. With as much as 2700 cubic kilometers of green water (from rivers and subsurface), an estimated 70 per cent of the total, already withdrawn for irrigation, the focus must shift towards productive use of blue water (rainfall). Else, countries will have to depend on food imports. Egypt imported 8 million metric tones of food grains from the United States in 2000, and saved 8.5 million cubic meters of water in the process. While such substitution works well in purely market terms, it does imply that water-scarce countries will inevitably yield some of their food sovereignty in the process - a decision not all governments would be willing to make.

Dietary choices

Meeting increasing food demand from available green and blue water is only part of the story. The other part relates to meeting the nutritional needs of a large population whose dietary habits are changing. In India, as in China, rapid economic growth has quadrupled the consumption of meat, milk and eggs. This would mean more water for keeping pace with these changing dietary habits. While an average vegetarian person's dietary need takes about 3000 litres of water converted from liquid to vapour, a meat consuming person may need four times more water. Pushing vegetarianism at the cost of religious and cultural sentiments favouring non-vegetarianism will be daunting for many water-scarce countries.

The question of dietary choices does, however, is not to be set aside too quickly. With one in every three persons suffering from water scarcity across the world and with irrigated agriculture being the major consumer of water, at least a few thinkers have asked if the focus should not shift towards educating consumers for making informed dietary choices. Anders Berntell, head of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), has suggested that "some kind of labeling of food products when it comes to their water requirements could be a first step." With labels, "if there is a choice between red meat or a fish [partly based on the need for water to cook it] then one could make a more enlightened choice."

Certainly, if consumers were to demand a low-water-consuming diet, inefficient irrigation will come under the scanner! Such radical steps may become necessary, to reduce the acreage under irrigated agriculture in the not-too-distant future. In a market-driven world, researchers may need to apply market principles in making sense of the scientific evidence. A higher price tag for food with a higher water label would be a perfect disincentive for consumer as well as its producer.

Sharper research focus needed

Given its multi-national authorship, the report stops short of making controversial recommendations but leaves readers with lot to read between the lines for interpretation. If a kilo of grain requires anywhere between 500 and 4,000 litres, should grain production be a priority for the arid regions? Does it not warrant a dramatic turnabout in the agriculture research agendas of national agriculture research systems as well as that of the CGIAR's international research centers? It cannot be denied that the most significant impact of research by the CGIAR institutes across the world has been on increasing acreage under high water-consuming crops like rice and wheat. Not only have the national agriculture research systems followed this blindfolded, this has been done at the cost of minor crops suited to diverse eco-systems and local livelihoods.

After having overtaxed farmland across the world, the researchers are now beginning to see the reality. Dr. Robert Zeigler, a 56-year-old American who is director general of the International Rice Research Institute at Manila, has been quoted as saying: "If we don't take a hard look at that, who the hell will?" Some of the institute's recent advances already are being tested in Punjab, including one strain of rice that grows in dry dirt. But the scientists readily acknowledge that finding a breakthrough is an uphill task. Interestingly, at a time when genetically engineered crops are being touted as the answer to foot shortages and nutritional deficiencies, the Comprehensive Assessment cautions scientists to avoid taking the genetic route to crop improvement, as genetic improvements in plants can provide only moderate gains over the next 15-20 years.

In many ways, this report is a timely assessment of global water resources from the standpoint of food security, poverty reduction and livelihoods generation. While the report makes a series of policy recommendations - from increasing water productivity to improving water rights and allocation - it restricts its assessment to the quantity-productivity discourse only. In doing so, the report not only underplays factors like climate change and global trade inequities but bypasses the political economy of investment in water infrastructure as a significant countervailing force. With external factors playing heavy on water governance within the nation-state context, pulling millions out of food and nutritional insecurity may remain daunting.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/aug/rvw-freshh20.htm
 

MillerCoors Dedicates September to Water Stewardship Activities

Company plans volunteer initiatives and partnerships with non-profit groups at all facilities

CHICAGO, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- MillerCoors is drawing special attention to our nation's water supply this September, celebrating the company's first annual Water Stewardship Month. Each of MillerCoors 10 brewery locations and corporate facilities are partnering with local non-profit organizations and hosting volunteer events designed to improve water quality.

"Water is our most important resource and key to a secure future for our business and the communities where we operate. For years, our goal has been to brew and package more beer while using less water," said MillerCoors Chief Executive Officer Leo Kiely. "Given our roots near the Rocky Mountains and on the shores of Lake Michigan, we are mindful of our environmental footprint and take water very seriously."

In observation of Water Stewardship Month, MillerCoors employees will volunteer in conjunction with various non-profit organizations. The national scale of these volunteer efforts complements their wide-ranging focus, as employees confront a variety of water issues. In their local communities, MillerCoors workers will clean up rivers and beaches; restore stream-beds; test water quality; and even plant trees, bushes and perennials in preservation areas.

"Water Stewardship Month represents two important commitments at MillerCoors: environmental sustainability and community investment," said Chief Ethics and Responsibility Officer Cornell Boggs. "We firmly believe that with Great Beer comes Great Responsibility, and we are committed to conserving water as a valuable resource, not only in our operations, but also in our communities."

In 2008, MillerCoors recorded a usage of 4.1 barrels of water per barrel of beer - well below the established United Nations water usage target of 5.0 for brewers worldwide. MillerCoors also invests in watershed quality, education and conservation efforts nationwide through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy and River Network.

"We're putting the focus on Water Stewardship in September, but we have several ways in which we take great care of this resource year-long," added Boggs.

Listed below are the Water Stewardship events MillerCoors is sponsoring in brewery and corporate facility locations.

Albany, Ga., Friday, September 11

The Albany Brewery is partnering with Keep Albany/Dougherty Beautiful for an event where employees will mark the non-profit's storm drain catch basins, informing citizens that deposits into the storm drain system flow into the Flint River and can potentially harm wildlife and humans.

Elkton, Va., Friday, September 11

The Shenandoah Brewery is partnering with the Shenandoah Valley Pure Water Forum to give volunteers the opportunity to help plant trees, bushes and perennials; prepare a walking path; and spread grass seed on a portion of a new park along Elk Creek in downtown Elkton.

Chippewa Falls, Wis., Saturday, September 12

The Leinenkugel Brewery is partnering with the Chippewa Falls Department of Parks and Recreation to help clean up the banks of Duncan Creek north of the brewery. Volunteers will begin in the park and work their way toward the dam, collecting debris and trash along the way.

Milwaukee, Wis., Saturday, September 12

The Milwaukee campus is partnering with Milwaukee Riverkeeper to help clean up the Milwaukee River in the Lincoln Park area by the bridge north of the Blatz Pavilion parking lot. Volunteers will spend their time helping the group remove trash and clean up the Milwaukee River.

Eden, N.C., Saturday, September 12

The Eden Brewery is partnering with the Dan River Basin Association for a volunteer activity that will help restore the Island Ford Greenway at the new Smith River access point.

Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, September 19

The Fort Worth brewery is partnering with Tarrant Regional Water District to join the 18th annual Trinity River Trash Bash where volunteers will help pick up litter along the banks of the Trinity River.

Golden, Colo., Saturday, September 19

The Golden campus is partnering with Volunteers of Outdoor Colorado (VOC) to bring volunteers to help with the non-profit's Shop Creek Trail Restoration Project. Volunteers will work with trained VOC crew leaders and staff to restore sections of the Shop Creek Trail in Cherry Creek State Park by alleviating damage to the wildlife rich wetlands and recreate a sustainable trail.

Irwindale, Calif., Saturday, September 19

The Irwindale Brewery is partnering with Coastal Clean-up to invite volunteers to participate in its massive beach clean-up day, an event that has garnered national attention for its size in past years. Trash and recyclables will be collected from California beaches, lakes and waterways during this endeavor.

Trenton, Ohio, Saturday, September 19

The Trenton Brewery is partnering with Butler County Metroparks to have volunteers participate in wetlands restoration at Rentschler Forest Preserve.

Chicago, Saturday, September 26

The Chicago headquarters is partnering with Friends of the Chicago River and will engage volunteers in planting gardens, testing water quality and removing invasive plants from areas near and around the Chicago River.

About MillerCoors

Built on a foundation of great beer brands and more than 288 years of brewing heritage, MillerCoors continues the commitment of its founders to brew the highest quality beers. MillerCoors is the second largest beer company in America, capturing nearly 30 percent of U.S. beer sales. Led by two of the best-selling beers in the industry, MillerCoors has a broad portfolio of highly complementary brands across every major industry segment. Miller Lite is the great tasting beer that established the American light beer category in 1975, and Coors Light is the brand that introduced consumers to refreshment as cold as the Rockies. MGD 64 completes the company's premium light beer portfolio, offering consumers fresh, crisp taste at just 64 calories. MillerCoors brews premium beers Coors Banquet and Miller Genuine Draft; and economy brands Miller High Life and Keystone Light. The company also imports Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch and Molson Canadian and offers innovative products such as Miller Chill and Sparks. MillerCoors features craft brews from the Jacob Leinenkugel Company, Blue Moon Brewing Company and the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company. MillerCoors operates eight major breweries in the U.S., as well as the Leinenkugel's craft brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI and two microbreweries, the 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee and the Blue Moon Brewing Company at Coors Field in Denver. MillerCoors vision is to create America's best beer company by driving profitable industry growth. MillerCoors insists on building its brands the right way through brewing quality, responsible marketing and environmental and community impact. MillerCoors is a joint venture of SABMiller plc and Molson Coors Brewing Company.

The Future of Freshwater: Part III

The supply and demand of freshwater is becoming more imbalanced over time. One day freshwater could become traded like oil if our current tends do not change. In Part II, we highlighted the issues causing an imbalance of freshwater. Part III is finding the answer to bring freshwater's supply and demand back to equilibrium. Acheiving an equilibrium is possible though pumping, filtration, genetically modified foods, desalination, and raising prices.

Pumping

An easy solution to increased demand is to adjust the supply. In water's case, that would mean pumping more ground water so it is available to meet demand. For this to become possible, transmission pipes would have to be built in areas with excess water, or by aquifers, that would run to areas with higher demands for water.

Pumping is not very economical because of two issues. One is that transmission pipes would carry very high costs. The other, is that areas with excess surface water typically do not have excess water. They simply have excess surface water that should be allocated to ground water.

Filtration

Filtration could be a small scale solution to increased water demands. Filtration systems are already used in disaster areas. Mobile filter systems are like miniature water treatment plants that filter polluted water in areas that do not have access to clean water, like after a natural disaster. These systems are normally run by solar power and are a great short-term solution.

House filters also quickly renew polluted water back into usable water. According to the Water Resources Management Project, household filters help to protect people living in rural areas from hazards and diseases resulting from water pollution.

Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Planning and International Cooperation said, "Yemen faces many problems in supplying its people, especially those in rural areas, with safe and clean drinking water. Such simple techniques can help the government to solve this problem in some areas suffering from water scarcity."

Filtration can solve some basic issues within the imbalance of freshwater's supply and demand by providing efficient short-term relief, as well as providing clean water to areas stricken by water pollution.

Genetically modified foods

Altering plant DNA and creating genetically modified (GM) seeds that will produce plants that require less water is a viable solution. GM seeds are currently used in many farm fields today and research is continually being done to try to modify seeds even further. For instance, the USDA has found soybeans that will wilt slower, so they will be more productive in drier climates.

According to Voice of America, which is funded by the US government, "Scientists are working on other plants that either use less water or use it better, or both. For example, companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta have been developing corn with reduced water needs. Monsanto expects to be ready in a few years to market its first corn seeds genetically engineered to resist drought."

The changes that can be done to plant seeds is incredible. Tel Aviv University has discovered that a specific gene controls a plant's hydrotropism, which direct the roots to grow toward water. That gene can be multiplied or added to other seeds to help plants survive in drier climates. GM seeds could reduce irrigation use which accounts for nearly 70% of the US water use.

Desalination

Desalination is the process of taking salt out of seawater, resulting in freshwater. It speeds up the water cycle and eventually increases our supply of fresh water. Desalination changes our potential water supply so oceans are suitable for use. There are many pros and cons to desalination.

The costs are higher than other solutions. According to the Texas Water Development Board, the average cost to desalinate brackish (low salt content) water is $400-$950 per acre-foot while it is $800-$1,400 per acre-foot to desalinate seawater (high salt content). Brackish water can be found underground near areas with salt water. Brackish water has less salt content than seawater, but higher than freshwater. In addition, desalination typically requires 2,500 to 12,000 kWh per acre-foot of freshwater produced according to Water Desalination International.

The efficiency of desalination is often criticized as well. For each 100 gallons of seawater input, anywhere from 15-50 gallons of freshwater is output. The rest is a brine solution that has extremely high salt content and can cause ecological problems if not dealt with correctly. The total dissolved solids (tds) range from 5 to 500 ppm in desalinated water, which meets state requirements across the US.

Desalination is widely used around the world. Desalination plants are very common among Middle Eastern countries and are even present in the US in some coastal states. The long-term impact is not totally known for desalination, but it can definitely solve the problem of freshwater supply by increasing it to almost infinite numbers.

Raising prices

When supply and demand becomes imbalanced for any tangible item, raising the price will lower demand. This is true in freshwater's case as well. By raising the price of water, people will use less. According to the USGS, raising the price of water will lower demand and raise additional income that can be used to find new sources of water or build new water-storage facilities.

Besides raising the price of water, rebates could be used to reward people who consume less water. By reducing the price of water by giving monetary incentives to do so, water demand would decrease.

Changing the price of water has been brought up globally as well. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, China has purposed a water price increase of 40%-48% to help control its rising demand. China's Ministry of Water Resources reported that Beijing and many other cities have usable water supplies of one third or less than the current usage rates.

The future

The future of freshwater's supply and demand will be changing regardless of what actions are done. Water could become so scarce that it is traded like oil and irrigation systems will be obsolete. On the other hand, freshwater might be better taken care of, and not wasted as much. Technology has allowed for the supply to grow, but it is a responsibility of everyone to not take water for granted because Earth does not have an endless supply.

Read more about freshwater, agriculture, and farmland at Farmland Forecast (http://farmlandforecast.colvin-co.com/).

Fresh Water: A Suprisingly Scarce Resource

Lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams are freshwater habitats. So too are swamps, bogs, and marshes. Lumped together, these ecosystems contain all the water in the world that is not frozen, essentially salt-free, and accessible to humans.

Lakes and ponds are basins of water surrounded by land, whereas rivers and streams are the arteries that move fresh water from land, such as mountain peaks, to the oceans. At the edge of many lakes and rivers are saturated wetlands—the swamps, bogs, and marshes—that support myriad types of plant and animal life, prevent floods, retain sediments, and purify drinking water. All the freshwater ecosystems can be found within a watershed—a set of habitats that drain into a single body of water such as a big lake or the ocean.

From scum on ponds to water celery on river beds and reeds swaying in a wetland breeze, freshwater algae and plants provide oxygen to breathe and food to eat. Plants like duckweeds float on the surface of still and slow-moving waters, while those with roots and flexible stems can stand in swift-flowing streams. Wetlands are full of vegetation that feeds everything from fish to people. In fact, about half the world's human population depends on rice, a wetland plant.

Freshwater habitats contain about 12 percent of the world's known animals, including 40 percent of the fish species. Many insects, amphibians, and crustaceans (such as freshwater shrimp) are also found in freshwater habitats. And wetlands are rich with birds, offering them a place to breed, nest, and rear young, and a source of food and shelter during long migrations. Some waterfowl such as grebes never leave this habitat.

Yet despite—and because of—the importance of fresh water, humans have manipulated these habitats more than any other on Earth. Sewage and chemicals pollute entire watersheds. Wetlands are routinely drained for strip malls, homes, and plantations. Rivers are dammed to supply electricity and water to cities and irrigation for farms. In fact, fresh water siphoned for agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all global water use. More than half of it is wasted.

These habitat alterations have destroyed half the world's wetlands in the past 100 years, dammed and diverted thousands of river miles, and left behind a polluted legacy for generations to come. At least 20 percent of all freshwater species are either extinct or threatened with extinction. As freshwater habitats are further degraded and stressed, wars over access to fresh water may darken the world's future.

Hope lies with cooperation among nations to better manage, conserve, and share the planet's scarce freshwater resources. Positive actions include resistance to wetland development, efficient agricultural use of water, and a switch to solar and wind energy from hydroelectric dams.

It amounts to precious little water, less than half a percent of the world's water supply. Yet it is vital to the survival of humans and a wide range of critters from dragonflies and piranhas to beavers and bullfrogs.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/freshwater-profile.html

Water policies suffer sinking feeling

Rising populations, improving lifestyles and changes to the global climate are all increasing the pressure on the planet's water resources, says conservation expert Brian Richter. In this week's Green Room, he explains why there is an urgent need for the world to embrace new ways in which it uses water.

“ While most governments have proven themselves incapable or unwilling to manage water sustainably, a group of non-governmental and professional water organisations is stepping up to lead the way ”

More than one billion people lack access to safe, clean drinking water and more than half of the hospital beds in the world are occupied by people afflicted with water-borne diseases.

More than 800 million are malnourished, primarily because there isn't enough water to grow their food.

Fish and other freshwater species are among the most imperiled on the planet, in large part because of the ways that we have polluted and exploited their habitats.

The theme of this year's World Water Week, currently underway in Stockholm, is therefore quite fitting: Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good.

What global changes, you might ask? Let us start with our global population, expected to rise from nearly seven billion to nine billion in just a few decades. That is why more than half the world's population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.

At the same time, in populous nations such as China and India, improvements in living standards and personal incomes are linked to greater consumption of clothing, meat, and water.

It takes 140 litres of water to produce one cup of coffee; 3,000 litres to make a hamburger; and 8,000 litres to create a pair of leather shoes. All of these processes require a vast amount of water to grow crops, feed cows, or produce leather.

On top of that, climate change will bring less rain to many regions, and cause it to evaporate more quickly almost everywhere.

Accordingly, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that "the proportion of the planet in extreme drought at any time will likely increase".

These are the nightmares that keep me awake at night.

Just the tonic

These global forecasts wouldn't look so daunting if we were doing a great job of managing water today. But over-extraction of water for farms and cities is already causing even large rivers such as the Yellow, the Ganges and the Rio Grande to repeatedly run completely dry.

Remarkably, we also continue to foul our preciously scarce water supplies with too much human waste. More than 200 million tonnes of it each year go directly into our rivers and lakes without treatment.

So yes, the challenges we face are vast, but there's something brewing in Stockholm that is helping me sleep a little better.

While most governments have proven themselves incapable or unwilling to manage water sustainably, a group of non-governmental and professional water organisations is stepping up to lead the way.

You may have heard of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that certifies sustainably-harvested wood products, or the Fair Trade movement for consumer products, yet no such scheme yet exists for water.

At World Water Week, a group of leading business, social development and conservation organisations will gather as the "Alliance for Water Stewardship" to advance a new voluntary global water certification program that will recognize and reward responsible corporations, farming operations, cities, and other water users for their sustainable use of water resources.

By developing best practice standards for managing water in a way that enables economic development in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner, the Alliance aims to certify "water users" who are taking major steps to minimise their water footprint and protect healthy watersheds.

Participants, otherwise known as "water users", can range from large international companies to local water utilities to agricultural industries.

The Alliance will bring together the largest water players from around the world in Stockholm to launch a "global water roundtable", a two-year dialogue among global water interests to seek agreement about the problems created by unsustainable water use, and to build consensus around the best-practice standards that will underpin the certification programme.

It is a huge undertaking, but the water crisis is urgent, and we desperately need a new, transparent rulebook for managing our water resources more sustainably.

So why would a large company or city to want to play by these new rules? A rapidly growing number of consumers are buying goods from companies with environmental and social credentials, giving certified products ranging from produce to beverages to clothing a competitive edge in the marketplace.

In this increasingly water-scarce world, companies are also becoming painfully aware of their vulnerabilities to water shortages, not just in their own business operations but throughout their supply chains. If barley farmers in northern China run out of water, breweries and beer drinkers throughout Asia will feel the pain.

Many companies are realising that if they can save water in their manufacturing or growing processes, they can save a lot of money, making them more profitable.

Similarly, cities save costs for water treatment when the watersheds that supply their residents are maintained in a healthy condition.

Interestingly, investors are increasingly screening loan requests from cities and companies on the basis of their sustainability scores, because behaving in an environmentally and socially responsible manner translates into reduced investment risk.

Perhaps most importantly, though, is the simple fact that we have no other choice but to move toward a new paradigm for water.

The maths simply do not add up any other way. We have only the same amount of water on this planet now as when life began. We cannot support seven billion, let alone nine billion, if we continue to waste and foul such a substantial portion of what we have.

Certification isn't likely to solve all the world's water problems, but it very well could set us onto a sustainability trajectory that could give my nightmare a happy ending.

Brian Richter is director of the Global Freshwater Program at The Nature Conservancy, a US non-governmental organisation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8205132.stm

Sprawling L.A. Shrinks Water and Energy Use

LOS ANGELES, CA — Commercial and industrial properties in sprawling Los Angeles reduced their water consumption by double-digits in July, the mayor’s office announced last week.

Meanwhile, energy consumption in America’s second largest city fell by 318 gigawatt hours during the 2008-2009 fiscal year -- more than half of which was driven by Los Angeles businesses using a slew of successful incentive programs.

Five core programs are credited with achieving the vast amount of energy savings, such as compact fluorescent lamp distribution and lighting retrofit programs, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

For example, LADWP handed out more than 500 rebates to commercial, industrial and government sites for high-efficiency lighting projects, accounting for $3.9 million in utility bill savings for participating customers. The program reduced energy use by 36 GHw.

Another incentive, the Custom Performance Program, reduced business energy use by 26.5 GWh through 77 energy efficiency projects. LADWP paid out $2.7 million in incentives, which will save customers roughly $2.9 million.

The incentive program that spurred the greatest amount of energy savings involved more than 34,000 small businesses. LADWP targeted small operations using less than 30 kWh for free energy efficient lighting, saving individual customers up to $500 annually, which equates to a 25 percent bill reduction. The Small Business Direct Install program trimmed energy consumption by 100 GWh.

Overall, the city cut its water use by more than 17 percent in July, compared with the same period the year before.

The reductions by building type include:

• 20.1 percent reduction by single-family residences

• 8.3 percent reduction by multi-family residences

• 17.1 percent reduction by commercial properties

• 21.8 percent reduction by industrial properties

• 34.4 percent reduction by government properties

"Avoiding the need to generate power through energy efficiency is the cleanest and most economical way to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and I am pleased that the DWP and its customers have been so mindful of their energy usage," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement last week. "Also, with the water shortage that we are facing, we must reduce our reliance on imported water and I am very encouraged that Angelenos have reduced their water consumption, especially during these summer months.”

Over the last three years, LADWP has boosted its energy efficiency budget tenfold. The amount of energy saved during the 2008-2009 fiscal year equals the amount of power used by 53,000 homes.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/09/01/sprawling-la-shrinks-water-and-energy-use