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Water, Science and Development |
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Where water and life worlds meet
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In 1948 Israel began to build a water pipeline to the Negev desert and opened up an everlasting conflict about the river Jordan, which covers about 67% of the
Israeli freshwater demand. Far too much, from their neighbours point of view. About 40 years later Turkey used the Atatürk dam to put pressure on Syria. In this region, Turkey, Syria
and the Iraq quarrel over the water of Euphrate and Tigris. Five years later the Egyptian president announced, that his country would not wage
a war for any other reason than a water conflict. At the end of the 2nd millennium the worldbank declared that water will become the oil of the third millennium. It is possible that wars that are waged
over oil so far, are going to be fought over water in the future. Drinking water is rare at this "blue planet”. Just a very small percentage of the global
water is available to and edible for human beings.
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Distribution of Water
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Even the small, usable part of water is not evenly distributed. Whilst South- and North America are very rich on water resources, North Africa and Asia are suffering from water shortage.
Availability of Freshwater
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Worldbank and UNO expect intensified armed clashes related to water accession in Africa and Asia. The vast majority of global warming projections assume that water supply in Africa and Asia is getting even worse. Not only the natural distribution of water is uneven, but also the water usage of nations differs considerable.
Water Consumption of Different Countries
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Although the US-population counts only one fifth of China it uses nearly as much water. Water waste is also a problem of emerging markets - only two western industrial countries, USA and Japan, are on the list of the eleven strongest water-consuming countries. A very big problem concerning the fast growing water consumption, are “products of wealth”.
Water Consumption of Different Products
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While the growing of one tomato requires about 13 litres of water, incredible 2400 litres are needed for the production of just one hamburger. Even the production of t-shirts and shoes (plentiful in (western) households) consumes a vast quantity of fresh water. Producing an average pair of shoes wastes as much water as 11 people need for drinking through a whole year.
Water was never distributed in an equal way and ressources are decreasing:
Population is increasing.
The average consumption of water is increasing every year.
Global Warming is worsening the situation.
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Interview with Dr. Sonja Hofbauer
We talk about Dr. Hofbauer's experiences as Junior Technical Assistant for the German Development Service (DED) in Cameroon within the project “PROVILLAGE – program for supply of potable water for the rural population”.
Dr. Sonja Hofbauer graduated from University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU).Since July 2008 she works for the consultant hydrophil in integrated water resources management (IWRM) projects.
--> Interview with Sonja Hofbauer (Only available in German.)
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