Fresh Water & Future Wars

- 2004 -

The Earth Is Dying

"Water will be more important than oil this century,"

says the former UN Secretary General

The Kogi are a pre-Columbian tribe who live an isolated existence in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. They are one of the few who escaped the destruction of the Europeans and still live their lives in accordance with their ancient spiritual heritage. Alarmed by the excessive mining and deforestation of modern times, in 1990 (for the one and only time) they allowed a BBC television film crew to visit them and document their lives. Calling themselves "The Elder Brothers", they wished to issue an urgent warning to the "younger brothers".

High in their mountain lands, they see that the earth is drying up, the sources of water that should give sustenance to the plains below are no longer vital. They warn us that the earth is dying and, "When the Earth dies we will all die."

Willaru Huarta grew up in the jungles of Peru, studying with the shamans. He says that his native Quechua Incan prophecies predicted the white man's coming would bring 500 years of materialism and imbalance. But now they say that era is coming to an end and the Age of Aquarius will "signal the return of Light to the planet and the dawn of a golden era. We live in a time of the fulfillment of prophecy." Now he tours the world teaching his simple message: "Humanity should cure itself and give help to the poor. Regenerate yourself with light, and then help those who have poverty of the soul. Return to the inner spirit, which we have abandoned while looking elsewhere for happiness."

Growing Water Conflicts

After signing the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said his nation will never go to war again, except to protect its water resources.  King Hussein of Jordan identified water as the only reason that might lead him to war with the Jewish state. Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali warned bluntly that the next war in the area will be over water.

From Turkey to Uganda, and from Morocco to Oman, nations with some of the highest birth-rates in the world are all concerned about how to find enough water to sustain urban growth and to meet the needs of agriculture, the main cause of depleting water resources in the region.

All of these countries depend on either the three great river systems which have an average renewal rate of between 18 days to three months, or on vast underground aquifers some of which could take centuries to refill.       BBC News

From disappearing lakes and dwindling rivers to military threats over shared resources, water is a cause for deep concern in many parts of the world. Supplies are threatened by overuse, bad management and changing weather patterns. The pressure will only increase as populations grow.   BBC - Water Hotspots

Iraq Marshes Vanishing

The United Nations has revealed new evidence of a growing ecological catastrophe in the very region where tanks are advancing towards Baghdad.

Latest satellite images show that less than 7% of the Mesopotamian marshes now remain intact. This is the area where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates join, and is thought by some to be the original site of the Garden of Eden. In 2000, it was estimated that 90% of the natural wetland had disappeared, through a combination of drainage works and dams upstream which restrict the flow of the rivers.   BBC News

Iraq seeks to ease water shortage

Iraq has appealed to neighbouring Syria and Turkey to increase the water flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Iraqi officials say the Ataturk Dam in Turkey and Syrian water projects are hindering adequate water supplies. They were speaking on the sidelines of the first international water management conference in Jordan. The officials added that, while supplies of fresh water were improving, it might take three years for all Iraqis to have access to safe water.

The Iraqi Minister for Water Resources, Dr Abdul Latif Rashid, said the loss of water Iraq was experiencing must be remedied so that Iraq would again get its own share of the Tigris and Euphrates. "Before building these dams in Turkey or using water in Syria for large areas for irrigation, we were getting... nearly 30 billion cubic metres of water," he said. "Now it's about a third of that amount, so the flow in both rivers - especially in the Tigris - has been reduced."   BBC News

The Water Resources of Earth

Over 70% of our Earth’s surface is covered by water ( we should really call our planet "Ocean" instead of "Earth"). Although water is seemingly abundant, the real issue is the amount of fresh water available. 

• 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water 

• Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use. 

• < 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.

A timeline of human water use:

• 12,000 yrs. ago: hunter-gatherers continually return to fertile river valleys 
• 7,000 yrs. ago: water shortages spur humans to invent irrigation 
• 1,100 yrs ago: collapse of Mayan civilization due to drought 
• Mid 1800's: fecal contamination of surface water causes severe health problems (typhoid, cholera) in some major North American cities, notably Chicago
• 1858: "Year of the Great Stink" in London, due to sewage and wastes in Thames 
• Late 1800s-early 1900: Dams became popular as a water management tool 
• 1900s: The green revolution strengthens human dependency on irrigation for agriculture 
• World War II: water quality impacted by industrial and agricultural chemicals 
• 1972: Clean Water act passed; humans recognize need to protect water

Global Change: Water

Countries of the world will look to Greenland and Antartica as a source of supplying water . . . Denmark owns Greenland, and who owns (controls) Antartica & the North Pole?

“Australia, Chile, and Argentina claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) rights or similar over 200 nm extensions seaward from their continental claims, but like the claims themselves, these zones are not accepted by other countries; 20 of 27 Antarctic consultative nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory (although Russia and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do not recognize the claims of the other nations.”                CIA – World Fact Book

Update: 9 October 2004 - Denmark plans to send an expedition to the pole to try to prove that the seabed beneath the Pole is a natural continuation of Greenland, which is a Danish territory. The Danish claim rests on the UN convention that allows coastal nations to claim rights to offshore seabed resources. Countries that ratify it have 10 years to prove they have a fair claim to the offshore territory and its resources. Science Ministry official Thorkild Meedom says, "First we have to make the scientific claim. After that there will be a political process with the other countries." Other countries claiming the area include Russia, Canada and Norway. The United States may also make a claim.

Samantha Smith, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Program, says, "We're seeing a growing focus on and fight for the resources in the Arctic, especially as the global warming makes the region more accessible."

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© 2006 by St.Clair