FACTBOX - Earth Summit deal on water and sanitation
Date: 05-Sep-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Here are details of the World Summit on Sustainable Development deal and the state of the globe's water supplies.
* After lengthy negotiations the United States agreed to allow the sanitation target to be included in the text, along with a previously agreed goal to halve the proportion of people unable to reach, or afford, safe drinking water by 2015.
* The plan recognises the need for a programme of action with financial and technical help for poor countries to reach the drinking water goal.
* Greenpeace welcomed the new sanitation target as progress although Friends of the Earth complained that privatising water supplies could lead to higher water costs for poor people.
ACCESS: According to a U.N. 2002 Human Development Report, 2.4 billion people in the developing world lack access to basic sanitation and 1.1 billion have no access to clean drinking water. By some estimates, preventable water-related diseases kill 10,000 to 20,000 children every day in poor countries.
COSTS: World Bank says to meet U.N. development goals some 300,000 people will have to be hooked up to water systems each day for 10 years. The estimated price tag is $25 billion a year.
CONSUMPTION: The world's population tripled in the 20th century leading to a six-fold increase in water use. The three largest water users are: agriculture 67 percent; industry 19 percent and and municipal/residential use nine percent.
SUPPLY: Ice, mostly in the form of glaciers, makes up 69 percent of freshwater supplies and groundwater 30 percent. Wetlands, which include marshes and swamps, comprise 0.3 percent, lakes 0.3 percent, and rivers 0.06 percent.
Many experts say wells are not about to run dry and globally we have enough water but it must be used more wisely along with attempts to address uneven distribution around the globe.
PROBLEMS/ISSUES: Problems include pollution from industry, agriculture, untreated sewage and poor infrastructure. Environmental group WWF says 30-50 percent of water diverted for irrigation purposes is lost through leaking pipes and channels.
Water tariffs in poor countries are often kept low, preventing investment in infrastructure and leading many to advocate privatisation of water services - 95 percent of municipal water services are publicly run. Opponents fear the poor would be denied access by higher prices.
DAMS: Dams have brought benefits to more than 140 countries but social and environmental costs have often been high. Some 40 million to 80 million people have been displaced by dam projects and they have damaged aquatic habitats and blocked migration routes for spawning fish species such as salmon.
China and India have half of the world's 45,000 dams. Dams account for 19 percent of electricity generated and 24 countries generate more than 90 percent of their power from dams.
SPECIES AT RISK: WWF says of 10,000 species of freshwater fish identified, a fifth are threatened or endangered because of pollution, habitat destruction, dams, over-fishing and the introduction or invasion of alien species. WWF says 81 species of freshwater fish have been wiped out in the past century.
THE ARAL SEA: An example of disastrous consequences of poor freshwater use. In the 1960s, Soviet planners built a canal network to divert the waters of the rivers that fed the sea to irrigate cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Once the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea is now split into two separate bodies of water. Aralsk, once a thriving port town, is now 95 kilometres (60 miles) from the coast.
CHINA/THREE GORGES DAM: The largest hydroelectric project in the world, started in 1993 and due for completion by 2009. The project has faced both domestic and international criticism.
More than one million villagers along the Yangtze river are being resettled and numerous ancient relics will be submerged. Of China's 668 cities, 400 are short of water.
