Water expert talks about effect of rising population on water
Dr. Peter Gleick, founder of the Pacific Institute and an international water expert, gave a speech titled “Water as a Human Right” on Oct. 25 as part of a series on sustainability to continue throughout the next three weeks.
The du Bois Center was filled with students, professors, Flagstaff citizens and students from Prescott College who were curious about the topic.
Jodi Norris, a Flagstaff resident, said she heard about the speech in the Arizona Daily Sun.
“I’m hoping [the speech] is about the water crisis and the lack of water in the world, and how we might solve this crisis,” Norris said.
Gleick said he was proud to announce that just three months ago, the United Nations officially passed a resolution that makes access to sanitary drinking water a human right. Gleick said the world needs to change its thinking about water usage from the old, 20th-century ways.
“It’s a time of new challenges and new thinking, new technologies and ideas,” Gleick said.
In the 20th century, according to Gleick, the goal was to just meet the water demand. However, with an increase in that demand due to population swelling and a decrease in supply, that goal is now insufficient.
“The failure to meet basic human needs for water is the biggest failure of the 20th century,” Gleick said. “Populations are growing very rapidly, and despite our best efforts, we have failed to meet water needs for everyone.”
According to Gleick, 40 percent of the world’s population does not have access to sanitary drinking water. He also said 80 percent of our water goes to agriculture. However, the amount of irrigated land per person is also declining due to the rise in population. Gleick said as climate change continues to warm the planet, the demand for water will only get bigger as people need more water to stay hydrated and keep crops alive in the heat.
“Forty percent of the world’s food production comes from water that comes from unsustainable water sources,” Gleick said.
http://jackcentral.com/news/2010/10/water-expert-talks-about-effect-of-rising-population-on-water/
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