Water: Law, politics and crisis

There is enough water for everyone but that access to it is hampered by mismanagement and corruption. In addition, global initiatives to improve the efficiency of aid delivery, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, have not been taken up by donors for possible support to projects in water sector as effectively as they have done in education and health sectors. It has lagely been left out to multiple donors working on overlapping projects but the recipient governments are not properly empowered to act. Water politics is politics affected by water and water resources. For this reason, water is a global strategic resource and an important element in many political conflicts. It causes health impacts and damage to biodiversity. Some 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe water source since 1990. The proportion of people in developing countries with access to safe water is calculated to have improved from 30 per cent in 1970 to 71 per cent in 1990, 79 per cent in 2000 and 84 per cent in 2004. This trend is projected to continue. To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This goal is projected to be reached. The World Water Assessment Programme indicates that, in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30 per cent. Some 40 per cent of the world's inhabitants currently have insufficient fresh water for minimal hygiene. More than 2.2 million people died in 2000 from water-borne diseases (related to the consumption of contaminated water) or drought. In 2004, the UK charity WaterAid reported that a child dies every 15 seconds from easily preventable water-related diseases; often this means lack of sewage disposal. Water used in the production of goods or services is virtual water. The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewerage treatment) to households and industry. Water supply facilities include water wells' cisterns for rainwater harvesting, water supply network, water purification facilities, water tanks, water towers and water pipes including old aqueducts. Atmospheric water generators are at the development stage. The distribution of drinking water is done through municipal water systems, tanker delivery or as bottled water. Governments in many countries have programmes to distribute water to the needy at no charge. Others argue that the market mechanism and free enterprise are best to manage this rare resource and to finance the boring of wells or the construction of dams and reservoirs. Drinking water is often collected at springs, extracted from artificial borings (wells) in the ground, or pumped from lakes and rivers. Building more wells in adequate places is thus a possible way to produce more water, assuming the aquifers can supply an adequate flow. Other water sources include rainwater collection. Water may require purification for human consumption. This may involve removal of undissolved substances, dissolved substances and harmful microbes. Popular methods are filtering with sand which only removes undissolved materials, while chlorination and boiling kill harmful microbes. Distillation does all three functions. More advanced techniques exist, such as reverse osmosis. Desalination of abundant seawater is a more expensive solution used in coastal arid climates. Reducing usage by using drinking (potable) water only for human consumption is another option. In some cities such as Hong Kong, sea water is extensively used for flushing toilets citywide in order to conserve fresh water resources. Polluting water may be the biggest single misuse of water. A pollutant limits other uses of the water and it becomes a waste of the resource, regardless of benefits to the polluter. Like other types of pollution, this does not enter standard accounting of market costs, being conceived as externalities for which the market cannot account. Thus other people pay the price of water pollution, while the private firms' profits are not redistributed to the victims of this pollution among the local population. Pharmaceuticals consumed by humans often end up in the waterways and can have detrimental effects on aquatic life if they bioaccumulate and if they are not biodegradable. Wastewater facilities are storm sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Another way to remove pollution from surface runoff water is bioswale. Water is used in power generation. Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower. Hydroelectric power comes from water driving a water turbine connected to a generator. Hydroelectricity is a low-cost, non-polluting and renewable energy source. The energy is supplied by the sun. Heat from the sun evaporates water, which condenses as rain in higher altitudes, from where it flows down. Pressurised water is used in water blasting and water jet cutters. Also, very high pressure water guns are used for precise cutting. It works very well, is relatively safe, and is not harmful to the environment. It is also used in the cooling of machinery to prevent over-heating, or prevent saw blades from over-heating. Water is also used in many industrial processes and machines, such as the steam turbine and heat exchanger, in addition to its use as a chemical solvent. Discharge of untreated water from industrial uses is pollution. Pollution includes discharged solutes (chemical pollution) and discharged coolant water (thermal pollution). Industry requires pure water for many applications and utilises a variety of purification techniques for both water supply and discharge. The writer is President of Community Policing Committee, Baizid, Chittagong, and can be reached at Email: drmnhzaman@gmail.com