Water, water everywhere

WATER CRISES

WATER SCARCITY

ALL life comes from water. Yet we take it for granted that our water will always be there when we need it.

Yet water is a precious resource. While Earth may be the water planet in this solar system, most of it is salt water; less than three per cent is freshwater.

And of this, 77 per cent is locked away in the glaciers and polar caps. Thus only one per cent of water is part of the hydrological cycle.

By the year 2000, many countries will have only about half as much water per capita as they had in 1975.

Meanwhile, the demand for water is growing — at 800 cubic metres a year, per capita use today is nearly 50 per cent higher than it was in 1950, and it continues to climb in most parts of the world, World Watch reports.

Already, many countries are facing shortages. Water-tables are falling, lakes are shrinking and wetlands are disappearing, according to World Watch.

The myriad products we use in everyday life, from computers to paper, also requires copious amounts of water, it says. In most industrial countries, industries account for 50 to 80 per cent of demand, it adds.

Even sports can use up vast amounts of water. An 18-hole golf course uses enough water daily to supply more than 2,000 families.

The "technofix" answer is to build dams and river diversions. Yet ultimately, a whole new relationship to this finite resource needs to be developed. Ways to conserve and manage water better should be developed.

WATER POLLUTION

WE TREAT our rivers like sewers. They transport our waste, be it sewage, agricultural run-off, industrial effluents and atmospheric fallout.

According to the World Resources Institute, more than 95 per cent of urban sewage is discharged untreated into surface waters in developing countries. This can be a major threat to human health.

Even in Malaysia, many rivers act as sewers. For example, at one time nearly half of Sungai Linggi when dry comprised of human sewage.

The ultimate sink for human waste are the seas and oceans, described by one environmental organization as "free-of-charge sewers."

Marine pollution is especially serious in estuaries and enclosed seas, such as the Baltic and Mediterranean, where pollutants become trapped, says the World Resources Institute.

Pollution and destruction of coastal breeding and nursery grounds, combined with overfishing, have reduced

the catch of many important commercial fish species, the institute says in its World Resources 1992-1993 report. Coastal habitats, especially wetlands, mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses, are being rapidly cleared, it says. Ninety per cent of the world’s marine fish catch reproduce in these areas.

Pesticide residues don’t just end up in our food but also pollute our waters. American studies have found a wide variety of pesticides in the groundwater of 34 states.

A national survey by the US Environmental Protection Agency found pesticides in about 10 per cent of all community water systems and estimated that almost one per cent contains potentially unsafe concentrations.

Studies have found that conventional water supply treatment technologies are generally unable to remove pesticide residues.

Fertilisers also have their effects. Estimates indicate one in four people in Western Europe are drinking water with high nitrate content.

CORAL REEFS IN DANGER

GLOBALLY, coral reefs are thought to be second only to tropical rainforests in terms of the number of species they contain, says the World Watch Institute. Reef organisms currently provide interesting material for cancer and AIDS research.

Man has caused the death of five to 10 per cent of the world’s living reefs, says Clive Wilkinson of the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Moreover, at the current rate of destruction, another 60 per cent could be lost in the next 20 to 40 years.

Of recent concern is the "bleaching" of coral reefs, where the coral’s symbiotic algae, which give the reefs colour, abandon the coral. Eventually, such coral will die.

Known causes of bleaching include pollution and sedimentation, says the World Resources Institute. Scientists speculate that global warming is another cause.

Also of concern is "eutrophication" ‘which has destroyed reefs in the Baltic, Adriatic and North Sea.

The steady influx of pollution — human sewage, fertilizers, acid rain —cause the health of the reef to deteriorate. The pollutants cause a glut of algae blooms, which eventually suffocate other lifeforms on the reefs.

Reef ecosystems have also been thrown out of balance by outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish, a coral predator that has plagued reefs from the Pacific Ocean to the east coast of Malaysia.

The collection of exotic reef species, such as giant clams and mother of pearl, have also badly upset reef ecosystems.

Exotic fish for the world’s US$4 billion (RM10.4 billion) aquarium industry are sometimes collected using cyanide. In the Philippines, where this the sixth largest fishery export, 80 to 90 per cent of exotic fish are captured using cyanide, says World Watch.

Blast fishing, despite being universally illegal, still occurs in 40 countries, particularly in South-East Asia, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, it says. Small coral islands have been entirely demolished due to this practice.

Source : The Star, June 1, 1993

Back to Archive Page

Recycling Point Dot Com

(C) 2000 All Rights Reserved