"A fight for survival" consequently grows, according to the Canadian water activists, "with water-related conflicts springing up around the globe."
Integral to many political struggles--such as Israel vs. Palestine—are struggles over water. These water wars appear likely to heighten in coming years.
Water was one of the main topics at the United Nations' ten day World Summit on Sustainability in Johannesburg, South Africa, which ended Sept. 4. Nelson Mandela warned of a global water crisis and demanded that access to clean water be considered a human right.
Integral to many political struggles--such as Israel vs. Palestine—are struggles over water. These water wars appear likely to heighten in coming years.
Water was one of the main topics at the United Nations' ten day World Summit on Sustainability in Johannesburg, South Africa, which ended Sept. 4. Nelson Mandela warned of a global water crisis and demanded that access to clean water be considered a human right.
Mandela and others are concerned with the millions who die of waterborne diseases every year.
"A legacy of factory farming, flood irrigation, the construction of massive dams, toxic dumping, wetland and forest destruction, and urban and industrial pollution has damaged the Earth's surface water so badly that we are now mining the underground water reserves far faster than nature can replenish them," according to Barlow and Clarke.
Water woes are worsened by the fact that per capita water use is increasing at twice the rate of the rapidly
"A legacy of factory farming, flood irrigation, the construction of massive dams, toxic dumping, wetland and forest destruction, and urban and industrial pollution has damaged the Earth's surface water so badly that we are now mining the underground water reserves far faster than nature can replenish them," according to Barlow and Clarke.
Water woes are worsened by the fact that per capita water use is increasing at twice the rate of the rapidly
growing human population, mainly because of industrial and agricultural use. One to two billion people already live in water-scarce regions, a number that the U.N. predicts will grow to 3 billion, or 40% of the Earth's population, by 2025.
At the World Water Forum in the Hague in 2000 the U.N. defined water as a human need, rather than a human right. This means that it can be sold for profit by private companies, rather than available to people on an equal access basis. The World Trade Organization (WTO) had pressured the U.N. to define water as a need rather than a right.
At the World Water Forum in the Hague in 2000 the U.N. defined water as a human need, rather than a human right. This means that it can be sold for profit by private companies, rather than available to people on an equal access basis. The World Trade Organization (WTO) had pressured the U.N. to define water as a need rather than a right.