World Water Week opened in Stockholm over the weekend. According to Mongabay.com one third of the world's population is facing water shortages.
From the article, "One in three people is enduring one form or another of water scarcity, according to a new report from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The assessment, carried out by 700 experts from around the world over the last five years, was released at World Water Week in Stockholm, a conference exploring the management of global water resources. The scarcity figures were higher than previous estimates. 'Worrisome predictions in 2000 had forecast that one third of the world population would be affected by water scarcity by 2025. Our findings from the just-concluded research show the situation to be even worse,' says Frank Rijsberman, Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 'Already in 2005, more than a third of the world population is affected by water scarcity. We will have to change business as usual in order to deal with growing scarcity water crisis we see in some countries like India, China, and the Colorado River basin of USA and Mexico.' The report says that about one-quarter of the world's population lives in areas where water is physically scarce, while about one-sixth of humanity -- over a billion people -- live where water is economically scarce, or places where 'water is available in rivers and aquifers, but the infrastructure is lacking to make this water available to people.'[...]
"The report notes that consequences of water scarcity are already evident in some of countries. It says that Egypt imports more than half of its food due to a lack of water to grow, while Australia faces major water scarcity in the Murray-Darling Basin as a result of agricultural diversion. Agriculture is a significant cause of water scarcity in much of the world since crop production requires up to 70 times more water than is used in drinking and other domestic purposes. The report says that a rule of thumb is that each calorie consumed as food requires about one liter of water to produce. While the report argues that 'many difficult choices entailing tradeoffs between city and agriculture users, between food production and the environment, and between fishers and farmers' it says that 'the world is not 'running out' of water' and that there is enough land, water and human capacity to solve the shortages."
Category: Colorado Water
6:44:59 AM 
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We'll report soon. In a clear signal to the rainy side of Colorado, conservation is at the top of the list, where it belongs.
