Environmental Markets

The Global Perspective

The management of water as the most important natural resource is important in every country on Earth.  In some areas there are significant problems in regards to access to clean drinking water, while in other areas water falls with such ferocity that entire areas are at risk of being destroyed by floods.  At the beginning of your time in secondary school, you will have learned how the Egyptians were able to predict and control the flooding of the Nile River.  This may well have been the first instance of water management at a national level.

In 2001, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals.  These goals represent agreed targets that all 192 member nations have agreed to try and achieve by the year 2015.  Goal 7 aims to ensure environmental sustainability, and as a subset of this, goal 7C aims to ensure that between 2001 and 2015 the number of people who do not have access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation is halved.  Although there have been significant obstacles towards the achievement of these goals, it seems likely that this is one that will be successful.

In 1970, only 30% of the people living in developing countries had access to clean drinking water.  By 2004 this had increased to 84%.  This is a significant turnaround, and it was made possible by the attention that was given to the problem by international governments and pressure groups from all over the world. 

People all over the world are generally interested in the same two issues in regards to water management – quantity and quality.  It is vital that we all have enough water to drink, but it is equally important that when we consume that water it will be healthy.  It is estimated that over two million people around the world die each year because the water that they drink is killing them.  For example, in some areas of the world diseases such as leprosy and malaria are spread through the way in which people access their water.

As a result, water consumption is vastly different throughout the world.  The largest consumers of water are the citizens of the United States of America.  Each person in that country consumes an average of 2,000 cubic metres of water each year.  This is more than three times as much as the average person from Germany, and at least eight times as much as the average person from Scandinavia.

In Australia we struggle to co-ordinate the way in which we manage water that flows through more than one state, but in many other parts of the world countries are forced to contend with water that flows through more than one country.  For example, the Middle East is the driest area of the world, with more than two thirds of the countries in that region considered to have “critically low” natural access to water.  Two major rivers in that region are the Tigris and the Euphrates.  In 1990 the government of Turkey decided to use dams to control the flow of these two rivers.  With the construction of the Ataturk Dam, water storages in Turkey were improved.  However, the cost of this decision was that water flows into Syria and Iraq were significantly reduced.  As global water storages continue to fall, decisions like this will inevitably lead to conflict over the way in which scarce water resources are managed.

On the other hand, some countries have shown that it is possible to manage international water flows in a way that is equitable.  The Ganges River flows between India and Bangladesh.  Until the late 1990s, the Indian government manipulated the flow of the Ganges River before it reached Bangladesh.  The water was used to ensure that the port of Calcutta maintained a reasonable level throughout the year, but as a result farmers in Bangladesh were unable to grow crops.  The two countries have now signed an agreement that ensures that sufficient water will flow into Bangladesh for the foreseeable future.  This has solved one of the two key problems; there is now enough water.  On the other hand, the quality of the water remains very poor, with high levels of arsenic and untreated sewerage making it unfit for most purposes.

The management of water on an international scale is vital.  The Vice-President of the World Bank has remarked that "Many of the wars of the 20th century were about oil, but wars of the 21st century will be over water".  Unless important decisions about the way in which we manage this resource are made soon, his prediction may well prove to be correct.

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