The pending scramble for water

Published by You on 4 February, 2009 - 01:34

The pending scramble for water

ANALYSIS by Dominic Waughray, Senior director, head of environmental initiatives, World Economic Forum, Geneva

In 2008, Saudi Arabia ceased to be self sufficient in wheat production.

It is looking to access land overseas to grow crops, possibly in Pakistan or the Horn of Africa.

China is acquiring agricultural land in Southern Africa for similar purposes.

And Daewoo Logistic is looking to lease land in Madagascar, to grow food for South Korea.

Other countries in South Asia and the Gulf are considering similar moves.

Scale of problem

None of these countries needs the land for the sake of territorial expansion.

What they need the land for is more fundamental: food. In all these cases, it is a shortage of water that has prompted this move.

The experience of Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea today could be a foretaste of what will follow elsewhere.

It stems from the failure of national governments and the international trade system to address the looming water crisis. Without changes, we face a scramble for water over the next two decades.

When water availability drops below 1500 cubic meters per person per year, a country needs to start importing food, particularly water intense crops.

Saudi Arabia faces this problem. Twenty other countries fell below this threshold in 2000, and another 14 will join them by 2030...

...

While over 70% of the world's freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, historically this water has been heavily subsidised and therefore free or hugely under-priced.

It has been used wastefully as a result.

More than a quarter of India's harvest, for example, could be at risk by 2025 as groundwater is depleted beyond recovery; already 10% depends on water mined from unsustainable groundwater sources.

Water scarcity may soon cause a loss of global crop production of 350 million tonnes, almost equal to all the grain the US grows...

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Submitted by sbf (not verified) on 4 February, 2009 - 15:10

problems problems problems.

Submitted by s.b.f on 6 February, 2009 - 14:27

China has declared an emergency in eight northern and central drought-hit regions, where nearly four million people are suffering water shortages.

Nearly half of China's winter crop - some 10m hectares (24m acres) of wheat and rape seed - are also under threat.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ordered all-out efforts to fight the drought, allocating 400m yuan ($58m, £40m) in relief assistance.

China's drought relief office called it an event "rarely seen in history".

China faces droughts and floods annually but has seen a recent increase in extreme weather conditions.

The Chinese authorities say the current drought is expected to continue as no rain has been forecast in the affected areas for at least 10 days.

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Submitted by You on 6 February, 2009 - 14:34

ouch

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

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