Pushing Water Higher up the Development Agenda

Scientists estimate that by 2025 more than 50% of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. The UN called this situation a water crisis. The water crisis term refers to the status of the world’s water resources relative to human demand. The world population will continue to grow, but water is a finite resource, which means the existing available water will have to be shared among a much larger world population. It is estimated there are 6.7 billion people in the world today and of these 1.1 billion have no access to safe drinking water. Therefore, a lot of research effort had to be placed and has been placed into water conservation and water pollution control. Recently, I came across two initiatives which will go some way to improve the water crisis we’re likely to face.  Read on to learn more.

Engineers Without Borders UK is a student-led charity that focuses on removing barriers to development using engineering. Their programmes provide opportunities for young engineers in the UK to learn about technology's role in development. By taking part in activities, and with the support of the EWB- UK community, members are making a difference to people's lives around the world. They have a number of projects on the go at the moment (see here) to educate and raise the awareness of students and others about issues in human development, including some water related projects such as: 

Low-cost microbiological water testing: the aim of this project is to develop a water test that communities can use to monitor their own supplies.

Solar powered well pump: Water irrigation through the use of a rope pump has been integrated with a solar panel for power. (See photo right)

Design of a low cost solar concentrator ro use in developing countries: This project looks at the use of a parabolic dish collector for powering an engine for an irrigation system.

The other, global scale initiative, is by the Global Water Partnership (GWP), who launched a new global water strategy: Pushing Water Higher up the Development Agenda. The new global strategy focuses on the achievement of four major goals during the period 2009-2013. "Recognizing the new challenges, GWP has developed a new intervention strategy," said GWP Patron HRH The Prince of Orange. See here for more information on the GWP's strategies.

In the words of Roberto Lenton, Chair of the GWP technical committee: “There are precious few development issues that can be talked about without reference to water security, whether it is poverty, hunger, disease, or the environment. In fact, the world community will have great difficulty reaching the Millennium Development Goals, if it does not place water security issues front and centre.”

Have a look through the CAB Abstracts database for thousands of records on water conservation and water pollution control research. Cabi’s new product Environmental Impact also contains a large number of reports on water conservation, especially the effects of climate change on water resources.

 

Comments

[Air Jordans]

It's so lucky for me to find your blog! I am very glad, and welcome you visit mine.

[Global Desalination Market]

That was amazing. Your thought processing is wonderful and give good details and it seems it is very inspiring to read. Global warming and population explosion are just 2 factors in the global water problems. Nearly 800 million individuals worldwide do not have access to clean water and another 2.5 billion are without cleanliness.