Problems with water

(Amended - 10/09/2019)

Watch this space! Water, or rather the lack of it, is going to cause us all a great deal of trouble in the future. And I don’t mean just in Australia, with the problems over the Murray/Darling river complex (with various States accusing each other of drawing too much water for irrigation purposes).

We treat this vital resource with scant regard. Each country with shared resources wants it for itself and this is where tensions arise. There are already tensions over the Jordan River which has its source in Lebanon and flows through Israel, where water is drawn off for irrigation. 

Then there is the mighty Mekong River in South East Asia, shared between China, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia – tensions are rising there too, principally because of accusations of dam building without regard for other users of the river – or the effect on the river’s eco-systems. 

The ‘blue’ Danube in Europe is not what it once was – it passes through quite a few countries before it reaches the Black Sea and is heavily polluted. In Russia the Aral Sea is now but a fraction of what it once was – what were once ports are now ‘towns’ many kilometres from the current shore line. Similarly many waterways in Russia are heavily polluted – a legacy of the old Soviet “industrialize at any cost” approach to development.

China has environmental and ecological problems with silting in the newly constructed ‘Three Gorges Dam’ on the Yangtze River and people down-stream who relied on the annual flooding for nutrient soil have now to use fertilizers. Many other rivers and waterways are now so polluted that animals are dying (there are reports about thousands of dead animals found floating in various waterways). China is only now waking up to the consequences of their “industrialize at any cost” approach to development which they inherited from their former communist mentor – Soviet Russia.

 Africa generally has huge problems with water quality and supply – there is just not enough, and what there is, is generally badly managed. The high Aswan dam on the Nile has stopped the annual flooding which, for thousands of years, has provided the nutrient rich soil in the flood plain; it has also killed of the fishery industry at Nile delta. 

Cape Town, in South Africa, recently had an unprecedented water shortage. Other parts of Africa, such as Zimbabwe are similarly affected.

The USA is not much better. A recent Environmental Protection Agency statement reported that data from 2,000 rivers and streams in 2008-2009, the most recent figures available (that I can find), showed 55 percent of waterways to be in “poor condition for aquatic life” with a dearth of vegetation which worsens erosion. 

Mexico City relies on underground aquifers and has drawn so much water that parts of the city have subsided (and are still subsiding) causing massive disruptions to the provision of services to parts of this city of fifteen million people.

Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital is sinking because of the over use of ground water. The Indonesian government is embarking on an ambition plan to relocate the capital to a new city on a “green fields” site in Borneo.

It has been predicted that as populations increase the adequate supply of potable water will be a primary cause of future conflict between nations. Those that have it will protect their sources and those without will have to fight to get some. 

So, as I said earlier, watch this space!