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| Sunday, 3 February 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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The trouble with water by Tharuka Dissanaike
Supplying adequate fresh water to everyone on the planet is a near impossibility even today. Enough for everyone to drink, wash and cultivate fields. Enough for good sanitation. Enough clean water to keep babies from dehydration and children free of bowel disorder. In a world swinging between weather pattern change and balancing environmental concerns, water does not lend itself to human control often. Floods and drought plague many parts of the world every year while millions of people live in arid climates devoid of within-reach water. Again, developing countries face the worst conditions. With expanding urban populations and the inability to commit enough fiscal support to expand water and sanitation supply with demand, countries in South Asia, Central America and Africa face a very unhappy future in terms of water supply. In 2003, already mooted as the International Fresh Water Year by the UN, the 3rd World Water Forum will meet in Kyoto, Japan to thrash out issues related to water supply. The Forum will bring together the conventional gathering of water-related ministers from around the world. But unlike other such high level pow-wows, the Water Forum strives also to make heard the voices and opinions of others who have expertise, experience and special knowledge of water issues. Professionals, NGOs, community workers and journalists will all have their say at the Forum, which opens on March 16 next year. The first two Water Forums were held in Morocco and Holland.
The Virtual Water Forum Over the web. Anyone with Internet connection can give their opinion, start a debate, discussion or offer experiences and solutions on the virtual forum. The Organisers invite interested people to initiate sessions on topics they feel are relevant and urgent. If a topic generates substantial interest in the participating groups, it may be adopted as a main theme for the Forum itself. Other appropriate discussions and ideas will be offered to the Water Action Unit, which is preparing the 'World Water Action Report' to be presented at the close of the Forum. Website: http://www.worldwaterforum.org Sri Lanka Recovering from a year of cyclone and drought, Sri Lanka is a country that should ideally have no water problem. Tropical climate with an average rainfall of 2000mm should ensure clean water for most of its population. But not so.
To provide drinking water for the entire population in another ten years the country needs to invest Rs. 8 billion (8000 million) annually. But the present budgeted amount is less than half of this. Further, population increase in towns and cities, cost of infrastructure and the cost of maintenance are hindering progress in providing pipe-borne water. In Sri Lanka some 70% of urban population are served with pipe water this figure includes shanty dwellings that share pipe between 20 families. But in the rural areas water is accessed through dug wells, tube wells, streams and lakes because government supply covers just 15% of rural households. Agriculture, in particular rice farming, takes up the lion's share of water consumption in the country. New, water-saving cultivation methods are being introduced by the Department of Agriculture, but these are only practised by a negligible number of commercial fruit and vegetable growing farmers at present. Sri Lanka's biggest challenge is to make use of the high seasonal rainfall - which even in the dry zone stands at 1000mm - and its extensive resource of inland water bodies (7000 kms of rivers and irrigation canals) to avoid acute water shortages in the dry months. The country also needs to look more closely at water sector reforms proposed by the funding agencies - like the tax on irrigation water - to find the proper balance between state support and deregulation of essential services. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Even if population explosion, global warming and international
terrorism were all controlled, the world would still face a daunting
challenge.
Discussions will be held through regional and local conferences to
supplement the participation in this important event. But since a large
number of people will not be able to attend such conferences or the final
Forum, the organisers have already launched several projects that will
collect opinions from stakeholders worldwide.
The country is finding it increasingly difficult to supply water to the
growing urban centres. Even in the high-rainfall wet zone of the country,
a few months of dry weather saps most ground water sources, leaving a
large population without adequate access to good-quality fresh water. In
the larger dry zone of the country many have to walk for miles to find a
water source. In the Hambantota district the problem of water access was
so acute during last year's drought that politicians pledged a seawater
desalinising plant for the area.
