WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE no more

Sharing and shared resources, food and water, threatened
From Food and Water Watch excerpting and editing by Carolyn Bennett

WATER

Our water infrastructure is in desperate need of repair. In order to protect our essential water resources, create tens of thousands of green jobs, and safeguard public health, we need a permanent and dedicated federal funding source. Help by urging members of the U.S. Congress to support the Water Protection and Reinvestment Trust Fund; learn more about the trust fund; learn more about the groundwater crisis; drink tap water [http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/].

Water Facts Global
Restricted Access to Water

1.4 billion people live without clean drinking water
Two-fifths of the world’s population lack access to proper sanitation
More than one-third of Africa’s population lacks access to safe drinking water
More than 130 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean lack access to safe drinking water
Between 15 and 20 percent of the water used worldwide is not for domestic consumption, but rather for export

Water and Disease

Every eight seconds a child dies from drinking dirty water
People with easily preventable waterborne diseases occupy half of the world’s hospital beds
Eighty percent of all sickness and disease worldwide is related to contaminated water (ref. the World Health Organization)
Diarrhea killed more children in the last decade (nearly 2 million a year in developing countries) than all armed conflicts since World War II.
Dirty water kills more children than war, malaria, HIV/AIDS and traffic accidents combined
Seventy-five percent of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from chronic dehydration because of poor water quality

Water Quality

Ninety percent of wastewater produced in underdeveloped countries is discharged untreated into local waters
Eighty of China’s major rivers are so degraded that they no longer support aquatic life
Ninety percent of all groundwater systems under major cities in China are contaminated
Seventy-five percent of India’s rivers and lakes are so polluted that they should not be used for drinking or bathing
Sixty percent of rural Russians drink water from contaminated wells
Twenty percent of all surface water in Europe is seriously threatened

Water Scarcity

One-third of the world’s population now live in water-stressed countries
Unless we change our ways, two-thirds of the world’s population will face water scarcity by 2025
Compared with 2010, by 2015 five times as much land is likely to be under ‘extreme’ drought
Between the 1970s and 2005, the percentage of the Earth’s land area stricken by serious drought more than doubled
Rapid melting will reduce the Tibetan glaciers by 50 percent every decade (ref. the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
More than two-thirds of Chinese cities face water shortages
Ninety percent of Europe’s alpine glaciers are in retreat

Water Facts USA
Water Scarcity

Water managers in 36 states expect water shortages by 2013 (ref the U.S. Government Accountability Office)
One-third of all U.S. water withdrawals are for export
California has a 20-year supply of freshwater left
New Mexico has only a ten-year supply of freshwater left
Florida’s rapid use of groundwater has created thousands of sinkholes that devour anything ─ houses, cars and shopping malls─ unfortunate enough to be built on top of them
The U.S. interior west is probably the driest it has been in 500 years (ref. the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Geological Survey)
In 2007, Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake, dropped to its lowest levels in 80 years and the water has receded more than 15 meters from the shoreline
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir of the Colorado River, has a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021

Water Quality

Forty percent of U.S. rivers and streams are too dangerous for fishing, swimming or drinking
Forty-six percent of U.S. lakes are too dangerous for fishing, swimming or drinking because of massive toxic runoff from industrial farms, intensive livestock operations and the more than 1 billion pounds of industrial weed killer used through the country each year
Two-thirds of U.S. estuaries and bays are moderately or severely degraded
One quarter of U.S. beaches are under advisories or closed due to water pollution
1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution are carried by the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico every year [http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/interesting-water-facts/]

FOOD global
Food is no longer just a sustainer of life but a profit center for large multinational corporations. Today, we are in a worldwide struggle for control of our food and water. Over the past 100 years, food production has changed dramatically.

Large corporations for decades have taken aim on family farms, but they have also begun to encroach on our oceans, vying to parcel off the waters into private chunks so they can create massive fish farms and develop private monopolies over the right to fish [http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/world/].

“Everyone is dependent on shared resources like clean water, safe food and healthy oceans. It is therefore essential that these shared resources be regulated in the public interest rather than for private gain,” says Food and Water Watch.

Food and Water Watch is a Washington, D. C.,-based non-profit organization with staff in 10 offices in the United States and international staff in the European Union and Latin America working with coalition partners to track the global impact of actions of U.S. corporations on public policy overseas; and to inform and monitor accountability.

Food and Water Watch works to ensure safety, accessibility and sustainability of the food, water and fish we consume. It advocates for common sense policies that will result in healthy, safe food and access to safe and affordable drinking water. It works to promote practices and policies that will result in sustainable and secure food systems that provide healthy food for consumers and an economically viable living for family farmers and rural communities. It advocates for public control of water resources and services, strong conservation measures ─ policies that will result in safe and affordable drinking water for everyone, rather than reliance on bottled water ─ and supports tough regulation of toxic emissions into water.

Cognizant of the oceans’ importance as a source of food, the group works against misuses of the oceans such as with the creation of massive factory fish farms, operation of dangerous oil platforms, creation of policies that lead to the privatization of ocean resources. Food and Water Watch promotes policies that maintain the environmental quality of oceans and their resources [http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/].