World Water Supply: Climate Change And Food Pressures Adding Challenges, UN Study Says

* Rethink vital to meet cross-sector, cross-border claims

* Tripling of groundwater use raises reserve fears

* 6th World Water Forum starts in Marseille on Monday

By Gus Trompiz

PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) - The world's water supply is being strained by climate change and the growing food, energy and sanitary needs of a fast-growing population, according to a United Nations study that calls for a radical rethink of policies to manage competing claims.

"Freshwater is not being used sustainably," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement. "Accurate information remains disparate, and management is fragmented ... the future is increasingly uncertain and risks are set to deepen."

It says that demand from agriculture, which already sucks up around 70 percent of freshwater used globally, is likely to rise by at least 19 percent by 2050 as the world's population swells an estimated 2 billion people to 9 billion.

Farmers will need to grow 70 percent more food by that time as rising living standards mean individuals demand more food, and meat in particular.

The report will be debated at the World Water Forum, which starts in the French city of Marseille on Monday.

A "silent revolution" has taken place underground, the report warns, as the amount of water sucked from below the surface has tripled in the past 50 years, removing a buffer against drought.

And just as demand increases, supply in many regions is likely to shrink because of changed rainfall patterns, greater droughts, melting glaciers and altered river flows, it says.

"Climate change will drastically affect food production in South Asia and Southern Africa between now and 2030," the report says. "By 2070, water stress will also be felt in central and southern Europe."

Asia is home to 60 percent of the world's population but only around a third of water resources, it points out.

A separate water study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released last week forecast world water demand would rise by 55 percent by 2050, with more than 40 percent of the global population likely to live in water basins facing water stress.

The report says with limited supply, policymakers will have to better manage the competing demands of farmers, energy producers and humans demanding drinking water and sanitation.

"The lack of interaction between the diverse communities of users, decision makers and isolated water managers has caused serious degradation of the water resource," it says.

The World Health Organisation said last week the U.N. target to raise the proportion of people with access to safe drinking water by 2015 had actually been reached at the end of 2010.

However the figure was contested by French charity Solidarites International, which said 1.9 billion people remained without safe drinking water, not the 783 million estimated by the United Nations.

The charity is among groups planning to challenge official messages at the Forum, with some associations holding an alternative event in Marseille. (Additional reporting by Jean-Francois Rosnoblet; Editing by Ben Harding)

Comments

[William Waterway Marks]

06:35 AM on 04/29/2012

WE HAVE BEEN GIFTED WITH THE TOOLS - BUT NOT THE INTELLIGENCE

Without doubt, we as a civilization face a huge challenge when it comes to water.
For a variety of reasons, our species has evolved into the position of being the primary catalyst for the present and forthcoming global water crisis. A crisis that only endangers ourselves.

Either we "awaken" to changing our behavior en mass - or, suffer the consequences.

We now have communication tools to helps us solve the water crisis and other global challenges. These tools endow us with the ability to rapidly distribute information around the world. We have evolved to create such tools such as the computer, Internet, television, newspaper, radio, and satellite communications - but we do not properly utilize our tools for "awakening" purposes - but for selling nonliving consumer products that further exacerbate the interconnected water, energy, food crisis.

This scenario if most interesting to bear witness to during our limited time on Earth.

[Kenz300]

10:29 AM on 03/13/2012

The world added a billion people in the last 12 years.

The ever growing human population makes every problem harder to solve and leads to more hunger, poverty and despair.

[ARNOST]

09:09 PM on 03/12/2012

Okay Lie number one World water problem is not the world 3/4 water . Take the salt water and distill it then you have fresh water . Lie number two food problem is because of greed and war not the soil grow a crop for 6 years on the 7th let the soil rest . And stop using Pesticides which harm the soil and your bodys . And Please stop with the Population control Fear . This Country America will never run out of food and will always have its basket full . Just Get rid of the Greedy People that want full control over food . Simple Fix

[Brutus Lincoln Paine]

11:15 PM on 03/12/2012

You clearly have a misunderstanding as to a large segment of America as to the rest of the country. The future of normal Americans is being sacrificed in order for multinational corporations to generate slave labor profits. Workers abroad are paid less for a month's work than what it costs the poorest American to pay rent for a month at the worse location possible. As long as that continues, there are significant segments of America whose basket most certainly is empty rather than full. That is compounded by the fact there is no emphasis, for the most part, in America on education except advanced education more and more Americans are finding harder to afford. Math and science in rural areas, not big metropolitan areas, is likely going to become very poor as the job markets have vanished and there are no tax bases; that is compounded even more by the fact those areas are typically religious to a fault as well. The multinational corporations steal from everyone. Until labor in foreign countries becomes organized and manages to actually get what they are entitled to and thereby force the market to be a true free market, they are not only stolen from but the reason why people lose jobs in industrialized countries.

[ARNOST]

07:55 AM on 03/13/2012

Oh i do understand . I prefer to Bring Hope for the future .

[Brutus Lincoln Paine]

11:17 PM on 03/12/2012

The workers in America stood up against slavery and involuntary servitude a long time ago; to environmental pollution and working condition in general as well. Many people who have little refuse to buy slave goods and speak out for worker's rights. It is up to those outside America to care as much about their long-term future as some in America care about worker's worldwide. Until there is solidarity worldwide, nothing will change for workers or otherwise. I would rather die than work for a country like Apple or Nike. As long as the thieves are treated like heroes by the rest of the world, there is nothing normal people in America can do about it.

[Lili Q]

08:07 PM on 03/12/2012

This is why President Obama was correct in shutting down the US space agency and attempting to stifle all US interest in advancing technologies, because Third World nations are running out of food, and we must also.

[JScott]

06:24 PM on 03/12/2012

Not one word about controlling human population growth if that's not an issue on the table all the other ones are totally useless.

[NGFatSquirrel]

04:50 PM on 03/13/2012

Oh, but don't you know, Obama is taking care of that issue by making 'birth control' a health problem. See, free birth control is a sneaky way of cutting down on the US population.

[pjlim]

06:21 PM on 03/12/2012

We can thank hydraulic fracturing for using up our water five years ahead of projections. While Texas suffered through one of it's worst droughts in history, the gas companies continued to use millions of gallons of water for their own selfish profit. I don't see this situation improving as they continue to use and contaminate water across the country.....

[Lili Q]

08:09 PM on 03/12/2012

Water has an unusual propensity to evaporate, and unless contaminated with heavy metals, evaporation usually tends to decontaminate water.

Are you saying that all your injected water is irretrievably bound in stasis? Lost forever?

[jeffrow63]

04:49 PM on 03/12/2012

You think oil prices are bad? Wait till water becomes scarce. The first thing we need to do is outlaw watering lawns. What a ridiculous waste of our most precious resource!

[yesitstrue98]

03:16 PM on 03/12/2012

Consume less? I don't think so. Our country's push on nation building over the past 15-25 years, while seemingly bettering the life of people abroad, is all about increasing the consumer base. An Ipod, cell phone and PC in every 3rd world home. That takes resources.

For over 70 years, our country's OPIC office has been directing US bank and investor dollars out of our country. Lately it's under the guise of climate change. Billions going to the African Union with billions more to follow. Talk about your insider trading....... In 2009 alone over 150 such projects (which is one reason there's less money invested inside the US) http://www.opic.gov/projects/current-opic-projects

Note: This government website hasn't listed it's 2010 or 2011 projects yet. Also note, prior to 2010 OPIC was proud to post how many foreign jobs were created (over 820,000 by the beginning of 2009) They don't post that any longer. While it's debated whether the government can be an effective job creator, let's look at Hillary's words. Remarks at Swearing-In Ceremony of Elizabeth Littlefield, President and CEO of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Hillary Clinton " "We share with Elizabeth (Littlefield) the understanding that commerce and private sector investment has to play a leading role. Governments cannot, in fact, should not, try to do it alone, but we can help to create conditions that will attract investors.... http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/148553.htm

[Beautiful World]

12:50 PM on 03/12/2012

Just like on Earth Day when we are asked to turn off our lights for 1 hour, we should have a day where there is no water coming out of the tap, to get an appreciation for this vital resource.

Then we may be more active to take the initiative to protect it.

[Lili Q]

08:10 PM on 03/12/2012

As long as its the people down the street who suffer

[darkmark]

12:35 PM on 03/12/2012

i read the comments and its we're talking to the choir again.

[darkmark]

12:34 PM on 03/12/2012

our life style is the problem. we are the source of profits. less oil consumption, fewer wars, less fracking, less tar sand development. less meat consumption less crap in our rivers. less fish consumption an ocean that remains alive. some how we have to cut down on the stuff we use.

[Beautiful World]

12:17 PM on 03/12/2012

Ontario's fresh water supply will be severely compromised by the proposed mega-quarry, which will require 600 million litres of water per day to be pumped through the pit. This is a major concern for the million plus people who depend on this drinking water.

[TheEmptyMonty]

10:21 AM on 03/12/2012

It will be interesting and probably sad to see how this issue plays out. Water is such a wasted resource. No more golf courses in Phoenix 25 years from now, I'll tell you that much.

I think I'll watch the movie "Chinatown" when I get home.

[Non Mormon]

02:51 PM on 03/12/2012

were out of water here in southern utah now

[Eileen Virnig]

10:14 AM on 03/12/2012

Lets see...MAYBE if we stopped polluting it we wouldn't have the problems we do?

Lets also look at some things...water from the great lakes (and other locations around the world) is being bottled by companies like Coca Cola and Nestle without restraint, or regulation....

the Bushs and T Boone Pickens own the land over the largest Southern aquifer in the US, thus they own that water.

So do we have a 'real' problem or just a new kind of greed that wants to profit on what humanity desperately needs? Pollute the water, and make me mortage my house to buy their filter?

What movie was it? "Thirst" perhaps which documents the growing privatization of public water facilities...dangerous and expensive (Atlanta?).,.then what the World Bank did in South America, where water became so expensive people had to choose between water and other essentials, eventually leading to people dying in the streets, protesting for WATER! Really? Humanity, is this where we are??? WAKE the heck up.

[yesitstrue98]

08:56 AM on 03/12/2012

Desalinate more of the ocean and chop up icebergs and further destroy our ecosystem. Let's let all that freshwater further dilute the seas and increase rainfall not to mention change weather patterns and cause flooding. Some of you folks are scaring me. I really hate the "results first, research later" philosophies.