STOCKHOLM, Aug. 14,2000 -- In his keynote address at the Stockholm Water Symposium, Dr Lester Brown, Chairman of the Board of Worldwatch Institute, delivered some startling facts on one of the least visible trends shaping our future: falling water tables.
The tenth annual symposium, "Water Security for the 21st Century - Innovative Approaches," rolled out its opening session in cool, 74-degree weather Monday. The event, which runs through Aug. 17, covers water supply issues on a global scale. More than 800 industry professionals are expected to attend the conference, which coincides with World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Over-pumping in China, India, the Middle East and the United States now exceeds 160 billion tons of water per year, said Brown. Since it takes roughly 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain, this excessive pumping is equal to 160 million tons of grain, or half the U.S. grain harvest. Four hundred-eighty million people are being fed with food produced with the unsustainable use of water, and water tables are falling on every continent, he said.
More highlights from the keynote:
- Almost 70 percent of all water from rivers or underground aquifers is used for irrigation.
- Twenty percent of all water from rivers or underground aquifers is used in industry and 10 percent in residential uses. As countries push up against the limit of their water supply, the contest between these three end-use sectors (irrigation, industry and residential use) intensifies.
- A thousand tons of water can be used to produce a ton of wheat worth $200, or it can be used in industry to expand output by $14,000 or 70 times as much. Using scarce water in industry is far more productive than using it for irrigation, Brown said, so water scarcity will increase international grain trade where the financially strong will win.
The world is facing a future of water scarcity and also a future of food scarcity. At present it is borrowing water from the next generation.
Coming up
Aug. 16, officials will present the 2000 Stockholm Industry Water Award to Northumbrian Water Limited, a water and wastewater treatment provider for Northeastern England. The Stockholm Water Foundation, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and World Business Council for Sustainable Development are awarding the first annual water award to Northumbrian Water for its new wastewater treatment strategy. The provider successfully integrated state of the art technolgoy and regional industrial and legislative bodies into a strategy that enabled itself and neighbouring industrial companies to meet EU regulations, produced useful end products, brought a dramatic improvement to the quality of the River Tees and proved to be energy- and environmentally-effective.
The award recognizes innovative corporate development of water and wastewater process technologies as well as contributions to environmental improvement through improved performance in production processes.
Also Aug. 16, the Founders Seminar will cover "Water Security for the 21st Century - Roles, Responsibilities and Opportunities for Industry."
The symposium has a closing session on Aug. 17 with presentation of the Swedish Baltic Sea Water Award 2000 by Trade Minister Leif Pagrotsky and the Stockholm Water Prize Award Ceremony.
The final seminar, entitled "Water Security for Multinational Water Systems - Opportunity for Development," is scheduled for Aug. 18.
For more information, visit www.siwi.org.
