Water - food or golf?

Two interesting articles about water stress that underscore the omnipresence of water in aspects of our lives from fundamental to recreational - although I know that golf is very fundamental to many of my friends!   

The first, BBC article discusses food production and mentions water stress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7795652.stm 

UK food experts are claling for food audits by water.  The UK imports half of its vegetables and many come from water-stressed nations.  This will need to change to accomodate an exploding global population and water scarcity.

The second describes the challenges golf courses face, especially in water-stressed areas like the the American southwest.   In Las Vegas, its 57 courses use 7.6 percent of water expended.  But according to the Aguanomics blog, "the $7 billion golf industry uses one percent of California's water while the $32 billion agricultural industry uses 75 percent of the State's water."

http://www.golfweek.com/protours/other/story/water-worries-special-report-122908

Water districts throughout Nevada and California are paying golf courses as much as $3 per square foot to replace turf acreage with water-efficient landscaping, and have begun imposing financial penalties for any water used over budgeted amounts. The result may be fewer golf courses in the future, and those that are left may look radically different from the ones that exist today. 

ICSID Tribunal Does not Award Any Damages Against Private Water Venture, But Finds Tanzania to have Vioalted Bialteral Investment Treaty

http://www.asil.org/insights081231.cfm

http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/Biwater-Tanzaniaarbitration

In an echo of the Cochabamba water conflict in Bolivia eight years ago, Tanzania was required to take on a private operator to run water and sewage in its capital Dar es Saalam, as a condition for receiving $140 million in World Bank, African Development bank and European Investment Bank loans to repair crumbling infrastructure in the city.   A joint venture of UK based Biwater and German-based Gauff was awarded the contract and immediately ran into difficulties - notably in collection of bills, resistance to rate increases and competition from unauthorized water providers. 

A dipsute between the consoritum and the Government of Tanzania arose when the operator asked for an increase in tariffs after realizing the difficulty of its tasks and failing to allot sufficient managerial and financial resources.  The Tanzanians eventually repudiated the lease contract, and ejected Biwater.   Biwater sued for $20 million in lost earnings before the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes).   Last summer an ICSID panel found that Tanzania had violated its obligations, it refused to award Biwater any compensation.   The reasoning was that becasue Biwater had failed to prove any actual damages, just lost opportunities to make money in the future, it was not entitled to recovery. 

Obama Administration on Water

President Obama in his inaugural address to the nation stated, that the US would "work alongside" the people of poor nations "to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds." 

What is in store on the clean water front for the new administration?

New EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has stated as one of her top five priorities at the helm of the Agency: "Protecting America’s water. EPA will intensify our work to restore and protect the quality of the nation’s streams, rivers, lakes, bays, oceans and aquifers. The Agency will make robust use of our authority to restore threatened treasures such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, to address our neglected urban rivers, to strengthen drinking-water safety programs, and to reduce pollution from non-point and industrial dischargers."

Alliance for the Great Lakes: "water conservation can create new jobs"

http://www.greatlakes.org/Page.aspx?pid=842

The Alliance is calling on Congress to direct $10 billion of emerging federal economic recovery funds to much-needed water conservation efforts.

A new Alliance report, “Water Works: How Water Conservation Can Create Jobs & Leave Our Nation’s Waters Better for Future Generations,” advises that an infusion of $10 billion in congressional economic recovery funds could create some 200,000 jobs.

Because energy consumption plays such a major role in treatment and delivery of potable water, conservation of H20 will lead to savings in energy.  

Pacific Research Institute: California’s Water Problems Are Mostly Due to Uneven Distribution, Not Lack of Supply

A Pacific Research Institute Report, "Go with the Flow" suggests that California's water problems are not due to lack of supply, but rather distribution. PRI calls for the emergence of water markets to better match supply and demand. Author Amy Kaleita observes that about 75 percent of the water supply originates in the northern third of the state, with 80 percent of the demand in the southern two-thirds. To facilitate distribution, California has a long history of large and costly water projects, with more on the horizon, at a time when the state does not abound in money and its credit rating is low. Under current water law doctrine in California, which is essentially a "use-it-or-lose-it" scheme, there are disincentives for conservation.

http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/publications/go-with-the-flow-why-water-markets-can-solve-californias-water-crisis

Water shortages threaten stability

A pair of articles from the Times Online highlights the threat of conflict over water.   The first discusses UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon telling the inaugural Asia-Pacific Water Summit that, "The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2994650.ece

The second article, entitled "Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water,"  discussed the end of the era of "cheap water."  Well, that prediction may be more true for those living in the north where water is currently plentiful and underpriced, but tell that to the inhabitants of water-impoverished nations who are paying up to 20% of their incomes for water and pay exponentially more per gallon than we do in the developed world. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5562906.ece

Reference is also made to a study by David Zhang, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong, in the US National Academy of Sciences journal that analysed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst than previously supposed.

US water market expected to grow after credit crunch

With recent cutbacks in investment in tech sector, major infrastructure capital improvements, the business of water in the US has declined lately.  However, the new adminsitration has already emphasized that they will focus on repairing crumbling infrastructure and investing in green technologies.   The damage to the enviroment and rising water scarcity within the US will, unfortunately, also be a strong motivator.

According to WaterMarket USA, 

"The biggest area of expenditure will be rehabilitating the sewer network - attracting a total of $46 billion of expenditure between 2009 and 2016. Up-grading wastewater treatment plants is also a priority - attracting $41.1 billion over the same period. The fastest growing market will be seawater desalination, which is currently not much more than a cottage industry in the US, attracting total capital expenditure of around $130 million in 2008. This will grow to over $1 billion by 2015."

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1739634.htm

Other findings from Water Market USA include:

• Water tariffs will need to rise steeply: currently US consumers pay between a third and a half the amount that European consumers pay for water, but they use two to three times the amount of water.
• The challenge of recruiting skilled staff will drive investment in automation among larger utilities and as well as encourage outsourcing among smaller utilities
• The fastest growing water technology markets over the period between 2008 and 2016 will be ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes (+280%), UV disinfection (+227%), Ozone disinfection systems (+233%) and membrane bioreactors (+180%), and reverse osmosis membrane systems (+165%).
• Capital expenditure on water reuse will top $10 billion between 2009 and 2016; whereas seawater desalination will attract investment of $5.5 billion over the same period.

The main beneficiaries of long term growth in the sector will be engineering firms such as Black & Veatch, CH2M Hill, AECOM Technologies (NYSE:ACM), and Jacobs Engineering (JEC); solutions providers such as General Electric (NYSE: GE), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Veolia Environnement (ADRs: NYSE: VE); and equipment suppliers such as ITT (NYSE:ITT), Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Energy Recovery Inc (NASDAQ: ERI). The growth rate of investor owned utilities is expected to be more modest, although they are expected to provide a safe haven for investors during the crunch period.

Christopher Gasson, co-author of Water Market USA commented: "The cost of the cutbacks during 2009 will be borne by the environment. We will see more pollution in rivers and lakes and further degradation of freshwater resources.

"From 2010 onwards the outlook looks much better. With Obama's big infrastructure spend feeding through, and utilities catching up with the projects that they were forced to delay in 2008 and 2009 because of the financial crisis.

South Africa's looming water crisis - threat of violence/

In a country where  access to water is enshrined as a constitutional right, observers are fearing violence could errupt, due to even the perception that water needs aren't being met. 

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20081214084955869C275213

By Eleanor Momberg

South Africa's water crisis was "like a ticking time bomb" waiting to explode. "All the signs are there," said Deon Nel, the manager of the World Wide Fund for Nature's Sanlam Living Waters Partnership.

Nel's confirmation of the looming water crisis comes on the heels of the warning by Dr Anthony Turton, the former natural resource and environment unit fellow at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), that the water crisis and the lack of surplus water in South Africa would hamper future economic development.

Turton also stated in a paper - which he was prevented from delivering at a CSIR conference last month - that violence similar to that experienced during the xenophobic attacks in May could be unleashed "in response to perceptions of deteriorating public health" as a result of declining water quality.

UN General Assembly President Calls for International RIGHT TO WATER

http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/statements/cremarkshumanrights101208.shtml 

United Nations General Assembly President, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, called on countries to establish the right to water for their people on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

"We should recognize that the right to water is a human right, and water cannot therefore be treated as a commodity that is bought and sold. The right to water should unite us in building a new model of sustainable human development" stated the GA President in a December address.  

Lake Mead unusable by 2021?

http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=71072

Scientists agree that water usage of the Colorado River basin in current amounts is unsustainable - but when will the water actually run out? 

China's plans on diversion of Tibetan rivers

More on the reported Chinese plans to divert the waters of the Yalong Tsangpo - Brahmaputra River in the Tibeten plateau and India's possible concerns downstream.  

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JL09Ad01.html

India quakes over China's water plan  By Sudha Ramachandran  BANGALORE - Even as India and China are yet to resolve their decades-old territorial dispute, another conflict is looming. China's diversion of the waters of a river originating in Tibet to its water-scarce areas could leave India's northeast parched. This is expected to trigger new tensions in the already difficult relations between the two Asian giants.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported during his recentBeijing visit to have raised the issue of international rivers flowing out of Tibet. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said that water scarcity threatened the very "survival of the Chinese nation". The river in question is the Brahmaputra, which begins in southwestern Tibet where it is known as the Yalong Tsangpo River." Analysts have drawn attention to incidents in the past to show how vulnerable downstream areas are to what takes place upstream in Tibet. In June 2000, for instance, the breach of a dam in Tibet led to floods and left over 100 people dead or missing inArunachal Pradesh. In August that year, swollen lakes in Tibet caused severe flooding of the River Sutlej in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, sweeping away around 100 bridges and killing scores of people. If floods upstream have a serious impact on downstream areas, the diversion of waters will have “even more devastating consequences”, an India-China watcher in India, Claude Arpi, warned.  Underscoring the implications of the project, Arpi said that issues of concern “not only pertain to the environment but also to national and international security. If Beijing goes ahead with the Tsangpo project it would practically mean a declaration of war against South Asia.”