Few resources on the globe so starkly raise such deep philosophical and political questions as that of water. Solving the problems of access and distribution of water cannot be accomplished without at least a tacit acknowledgment of the centrality of the question of the meaning of  life on this planet. Of course, water is fundamental to human existence at its most basic level; but from water as life substance flow the larger questions of what our lives mean, how we share our resources, what our responsibilities are to those without these resources, and what uses of water should have priority the ultimate scheme of things.

 
     Therefore, the problems posed  by water in the modern world are not simply questions of natural resources, they are problems of people, politics, and priorities. The urgency of solutions, trumpeted widely in conferences such as this but curiously absent from the top slot of many popular political agendas, only makes more dramatic the consequences of our hesitancy in taking thoughtful action to deal with the relentless continuation of water depletion.

    The countries comprising what have come to be called the "global South" are, not suprisingly, in the most precarious position vis-a-vis water resources and, as with so many other issues, have the least capacity to mobilize external assistance or even to influence the world to acknowledge and to address this urgent situation.

    As president of American University, I welcome you to this most important conference. But I do so self-consciously -- self-conscious that our name, "American University," signals that we are in a country that has access to 800 gallons of water per day for every American, whereas in Gaza each Palestinian has access to less than 15 gallons per day, and the current rate will have less than 8 gallons per day per citizen within 30 years. I am self-conscious, too, that in China this summer more than 3,600 people died from floods that left millions of homes destroyed and $30 billion in damages; yet, as journalist John Pomfret reports, 400 of China's 600 largest cities live with water shortages, and throughout  northern China, an estimated 550 million people -- more than twice the population of the United states -- do not have enough water. Indeed, during the 1990's, floods cost China an average of $10 billion a year, while water shortages annually cost china $35 billion in lost crops and stunted industrial production. In terms of real human cost, water deficit are looming larger than economic deficits.

    But I am also self-conscious in welcoming you to American University because of our unique character as a global university that embraces the full scope of human experience and problems throughout the world. With the largest school of international affairs in the U.S.; with a student body from 145 countries, and with an expanding programmatic base in countries around the World, we are leading the way in translating "ideas into action, and action into service" on  international scale.

    Some will say that another conference on this or any other topic will do little good. It is time to act. Yet, those who are here and who have been in other contexts of serious deliberation on intractable problems understand that the force of action will be thwarted without bringing to the table the best ideas with the most far sighted consequences voiced by and on behalf of the primary stake holders.
 
    I am proud to lead an institution that houses the Center for the Global South, that regularly brings the right people to the table, clarifies the difficult road ahead, and leaves with all of us not only an unmistakable moral mandate but also a sense of empowerment to do what must be done.

    It is a pleasure to have you on campus. May your hours of deliberation congeal into a sense of direction for how we can move to address the water problem, and do so in ways that enhance the prospects for building a humane future for the peoples of the South and the North who share a single world.
 

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2.

A. GLOBAL WATER DISTRIBUTION - A Glimpse

•  94% of it, is Sea or Salt Water
•  06%  is Fresh or Sweet Water
 
                    of this
• 27% in Glaciers - not directly available
• 72% in Underground
• 01% is in Streams / Lakes/ Atmosphere

This tablespoon of fresh water is of the order of

• 41000 Km³  out of which
• 32000 Km³  goes to sea ( direct of runoff)
 
                       which means
 
• only 9000 Km³   is available for land plants, animals and homo- sapiens

-    all 9000 Km³  renewable freshwater resources cannot be used for mankind

-    around half of it, has to be left for life supporting eco-system comprising of plants,
    forests, animals, birds and insects as well as for environmentsl sub systems like
    wet-lands, lakes, swamps, backwaters and low lands.
 
 

• Hence Global annual withdrawal of freshwater of the order of 5000 Km3 or more, is likeli to endanger the  planet's ecology and environment. THis 5000 Km3 is a critical figure.

• UNEP - 92 predicts, by 2000AD, the global withdrawal of fresh water wilo exceed 5300 Km³ and right now (1998) it is about to touch the magic figure of 5000Km³ .

• Global average of Per capita fresh water availability ( with 7 billion population) is of order of 3500 litres/day, which is reducing by 5% every year ( on account of opopulation increase and pollution load)

• By another couple of years, this average will be around 2500 lpcd. out of these 2500 litres, mankind can safely use for themselves only half of it i.e., 1250 litres/day, the remaining half has to be left for ecology and environment.

• Minimum Per capita water requirement in litres / day (NIH, Roorkee India)

• So, Global Water Scarcity is no longer a feeling, but a harsh reality

• The miseries of Global Water Scarcity is getting compounded due to
• increasing pollution load which, in effect, is diminishing the usable supply
• mismanagemetnt of this limited precious life supporting substance
 
Because of pollution in Polish Rivers, the river based drinking water supply has treduced from 32% to 5% during last two decades
 
• 3/4th of Poland's river water are too contaminated even for industrial use

    Moreover, in the respect to fresh water, our planet is going bad to worse,
    for associated reasons like:

• Atmospheric levels of heat trapping carbon dioxide are now 26& higher than the pre-Industroal concentration
 
• Since last 150 years, 6 of the 7 warmest years on record ahve occured since 1980
 
• Forests are vanishiong at the rate 17 million hectars per year, an area about the half a size of Finland
 
• World populationis annually growing by 92 million people, of this 88% million are being added in the developing world

• Coming down from the global scenarion to the regional and local pictures, there is a belief that water scarcities, are limited to desertic, arid and semi-arid regions of the World.
 
• This is not quite true
 
• With the rise in population, industry and agriculture, it is no wonder that water scarcities and water disputes have spread in wet areas too.

• India & Bangladesh haggle over the Ganges River
• Thailand & Vietnam over Mekong
• Czechoslovakia & Hungary over Danube
• Mexico &USA over Colorado River
• Israel & Jordan over the Jordan RIver
• etc..etc...

• 214 important river basins are multinational
                        out of which
• 155 are shared between 2 countries
• 36 are shared between 3 countries
• 23 are shared between 4 to 12 countries

INDIA
 

• Average Rainfall of India is 1190 mm and total precipitation is around 400 Km3/Yr.
• In the Indian context, several studies on fresh water development, reveal few interesting facts:

• With Increasing population, India will get clubbed as one of water scarce country by 2010 AD
 
• The GAINS in the Indian water scenario during last 40 years are

• Safe drinking water for 400 million people
• Improved agricultural production (green revolution)
• Guineworm eradication

• While the PAINS in the Indian water-sector as a result of unsustainable development & population pressure are

• Declining groundwater table/traditional sources drying up
• salinity ingress
• Excess Flouride /Arsenic/Iron...etc.
• Chronic drought and water scarcity in many places
 
• Let us now find the water situation in one of the wettest regions of the world

• Kerala State of the Indian Union is one of the wettest areas in the World with

• 3000mm of annual rainfall with two monsoons (SW & NE)
• 44 Rivers
• 29 Fresh water reservoirs/Lakes
• 250 Open wells per square Km -- largest open well density in the world
• Large nos. of springs, tanks & ponds
• Chains  of backwater bodies, estuaries and 600 Km long coastal line on Arabian sea
 
• The above scenario is in contradiction to acute drinking water scarcity in Kerala for 4-5 months in a year

• The rivers are either dry or saline up to 15-20 km from the shore
• GWT is declining at several places and getting saline in few others
• Reservoirs have little water in the summer
• Tanks and ponds get a desiccated look
• Discharges in springs reduce considerably in the summer

• With all that, there are still plenty of water in large backwater bodies, estuaries, ocean linked lakes - but is of limited use for local population
• Why this contrasting situation in the midst of plenty ? -- is it a

• Kerala is one of the wettest

• Population Density
• Biomass Density
• Open well Density

• Steep slopes/narrow width sandwiched between mountain and ocean

• One of the lowest per capita rainwater availability in the Indian Sub-Continent and it is still decreasingover the time, even though Kerala has 3000 mm of rainfall which is around 3 times the national average.
 
• Inspite of 44 rivers and world's largest well density, per capita surface and groundwater availability of kerala is lower than even Rajasthan and Gujarat -- arid States of Indian Union,
 
• With all these, it is no wonder that Kerala - the wettest State of the Indian Union and one of the wettest in the World -- suffers from severe water scarcity
 
• Hence the Global Water Scarcity has hardly discriminated between
 
• High and low rainfall areas
• dry and wet area
• low and high population density spots

• The scarcity ( at least seasonal) has engulfed the entire Planet. Overpopulation and its careless attitude are the causes.

• The shadow of homo-sapiens on te water and environment is aptly described by the poet Kathleen Reine in her writing:

The solution lies in remembering what every letter in WATER represents:
 
 
• Waste not, by using minimum required
 
• Add to the resource, by not polluting it
 
• Try to conservethe resource, by all methods possible
 
• Ensure the availability in summer, by appropriate planning
 
• Reduce and controll the population such that the per
          capita availability does not go below 2500 lpcd
 
SOLUTION ALSO LIES ON TWO DICTUMS:
 
• Control the  global population within sustainable limit
 
• Make the protection of water ecosystem, a central goal, in all what we do

***
 

1. National Geographic, November 1993, Special Edition : Water.

2. Sandra Postel, 1992, " Last Oasis -- Facing Water Scarcity."
             The World Watch Environmental ALert Series, Horizon India Books
             (Indian Edition) New Delhi.

3. India Today, June 15, 1992 -- Special Issue on Environment.

4. Survey of Indian Environment, 1992 - Published by the Hindu.

5. Survey of Indian Environment, 1993 - Published by the Hindu.

6. Water Atlas of kerala, 1995 -- Published by the Centre for Water Resources Development
             and Management, Calicut, Kerala, India.

7. Dying Wisdom -- State of India's Environment. A Citizen's Report, Editied by
            Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain, Published by Centre For Science and
            Environment.
8. Water -- Three CUltures in Search of Balance, Sdu Publishers, Netherlands, 1994.

9. Report of the Panel on Urbanisation -- WHO COmmission on Health and Environment,
            1992.

10. Saving Our Planet -- hallenges and hopes, The State of the Environment (1972 -1992),
            UNEP, Nairobi, 1992.
 

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3.                         ***not yet available***
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