Word: waterous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...There's no guarantee the current uneasy comity will continue. "We can't use history as our guide for water planning anymore," says Saleem Ali, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and a co-author of the report. Demographic growth - the continent's population is expected to grow by nearly 500 million people over the next 10 years - combined with climate change will likely mean that far more Asians will be tapping shrinking sources of water. Water wouldn't be a sole trigger for war but rather a "threat multiplier" - a factor that worsens the social...
...Fortunately, even a drier, more crowded world should still have enough water to meet its needs, provided the supply is regulated well on both national and international levels. That can include stiffer regulations against industrial pollution (plus policies that ensure dirty water is employed for nonvital uses like landscaping) and more efficient agricultural practices, such as drip irrigation, that would cut down on the enormous amount of water wasted in farming. More rational pricing of water, even in poor nations, can help reduce misuse on the farms and in the cities...
...Asia falls short. Beyond rich nations like Japan and Singapore, which have invested heavily in water quality, water management is still abysmal; according to the U.N., half of the 24 Asian and Australian eco-regions are severely or moderately affected by pollution, and conditions are expected to get worse. Asia lacks the strong regional institutions necessary to promote better water policies across borders and head off potential resource conflicts. "We have to go beyond existing networks," says Ali, who notes that no global treaty is currently in place on water. "What we have now isn't enough...
...hope is that, properly managed, water could actually help knit Asia together. More than any other resource, water must be shared. Rivers don't respect borders, and those downstream are dependent on the good behavior of those upstream - as the residents of Khabarovsk learned in 2005. Asian nations will need to come together on water - or they'll go thirsty alone...
...also turned the grindstones on which various interest groups rushed to sharpen their axes. As a Portuguese water dog, the favorite breed of Ted Kennedy's, he managed to feed grievances of conservatives and pet-rescue activists simultaneously. Rush Limbaugh is even recording ads for the Humane Society...