WW - World War or Water War??!!!!
Did you know
- that more than a billion people have no access to safe drinking water?? (if that doesnt hit you then this will - every sixth human being doesnt have access to safe drinking water - imagine the whole of India not having water!!!)
- than in India only 30% of total cultivated land is irrigated??
- that India has only 4% of world's fresh water resources to support 16% of world's population???
- that by 2050 it is expected that Tibet plateau is expected to lose one third of its glaciers??...(remember is a big source of rivers for China and India!!)
- that some of the biggest lakes in the world like Victoria in Africa or Qinghai in China are shrinking or getting contaminated beyond repair??
- that demand for fresh water has tripled over the last 5 decades!!!
We can go on and on and on about this...the numbers are scary to say the least.Not oil, not copper, not zinc and not any other commodity, but water will probably lead to a lot of strife in the world.
Its not India alone. China, USA...well pretty much across the globe with no exceptions at all.Major rivers,including Nile in Egypt, Ganges in India, Yellow river in China, across the world are carrying lesser and lesser water.Fisheries have getting depleted at an alarming rate because the sea water is turning too salty for them as rivers increasingly fail to unload water into the oceans.
More and more water is now being diverted from irrigation to the growing urban population, leading to two consequences. One being the lower productivity of the land and secondly, disenchantment with agriculture as an economic activity since returns are too low to sustain living. Global warming is not helping the water cause with erratic and at times, extreme in nature, kind of rainfall.
In the increasingly tricky global geopolitical scenario, water will add a dimension like none other.The fight for water has the potential to escalate to a scale never seen in the history of mankind.
Can you imagine:
- China choking off Brahmaputra before it reaches India??
- Higher security around Lake Superior than around the White House??
Dont know if these are just hallucinations or the upcoming reality? But as an investor, optimism has to be in your DNA.
So how about large scale desalination plants doting the landscape across all the beaches in the world!!!!hmmmmmmm..........
6 comments:
make no mistake baglihar was not a usual indo-pak problem...baglihar was probably the first instance where there was some international tension due to water....it was much bigger....
problems on nile and other big transnational rivers are going to follow for sure...
not bad...the first big desalination plant in india seems to be on its way....Gulf Of Khambat in Gujarat...is apparently being converted into a fresh water lake....over a period of seven years...its the biggest project taken up till date...!!!way to go...
also egypt and sudan seem to be fighting because now sudan now wants to build a dam on nile...before it flows into egypt...egypt of course will be a little sceptical of the future...
many desalination plants are being planned in india...almost all big sized SEZs in the country are going to have a desalination plant....treatment of waste water is also picking up steam....in fact few cities like Gold Coast, municipal water comes from waste water....hmm....we are on our way!!!
China apparently is trying to slow down its Ethanol march due to water issues....in fact even Coal-to-liquid drive may slowdown given the water intensity of these processes.
Just to scare a little more -
Since 2007, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has increased its water rates from $574 an acre-foot to $781 an acre-foot - a 36% increase. (An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to flood a plain of one acre to a depth of one foot - or about 326,000 gallons.)
More increases are on the way. The MWD has approved an increase to $811 an acre-foot by January 2010 and another increase to $985 by 2011. That would mean a 71% increase in five years. Despite these increases, water is still too cheap in Southern California.
California is a good case study where the water crisis is in bloom. Brackpool pointed out a number of challenges California faces. Here are three:
Supply limitations - In 2007, a federal judge put limits on the amount of water taken out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta. The problem was as the water flows down from the Sierra Mountains, it also flows through an estuary before it reaches the state's water supply. And the estuary was depleted due to excessive pumping, which endangered some fish native to the river. In any case, the system is delivering only 40% of capacity now. At this point, even several wet years won't get it back to 100%
Drought - This is pretty well-known, but California just had its third consecutive dry year. Current reservoir levels are at all-time lows
Aging infrastructure - The system is no longer capable of supporting the increased population without significant investment.
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