Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - June 2002
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Blue Gold - a dismal litany of global water tragedies

By Tom Davey, Editor

It was Malthus who first predicted that growing human populations would inevitably result in humankind becoming unable to feed itself, and so invested economics with the taint: The Dismal Science. In 2002, the book Blue Gold is similarly pessimistic but outlines a litany of tainted rivers, dried out aquifers and polluted lakes, as an even bigger threat to mankind than food shortages.

History, however, shows that war has remained the largest and most consistent obstacle to providing food and water for the human race.

At the AWWA Centenary meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1971, keynote speaker, Robert MacNeil¹, a Canadian author and broadcaster, eloquently outlined the growing number of areas where water shortages resulted in conflicts. Much later, a spokesman for the World Bank predicted that the wars in this century would be about water, not just land. Now, Blue Gold shows how water shortages, pollution and population increases are rising on a dramatic scale which inevitably will lead to political unrest.

Coincidently, the book's global water theme has other links to the AWWA. In 1999, Maude Barlow addressed the OWWA/OMWA² conference in Ottawa on this subject. Noted for her strong, left-wing views, I thought she seemed an unlikely speaker for this rather conservative group of water treatment professionals. I was wrong. She captivated her audience with her expert grasp of water resources data – interwoven with undeniably simplistic solutions to global water situations. Now she has written a book with Tony Clark called: Blue Gold – The battle against corporate theft of the world's water. While the subtitle leaves readers in no doubt of the authors' left-wing mindset, their book is well worth buying for its impressive collection of water resource data. Many of the data she presented at the Ottawa conference appear in this book.

The authors' expertise in collecting and assembling the incredibly diverse water resource data on Planet Earth is highly sophisticated, painstakingly presented and easy to read and understand.

Many, including me, will disagree with some of the authors' familiar nostrums that the full burden of all global water problems can be laid at the door of multinational corporations – although some of them certainly do leave heavy and tainted footprints.

Some of the authors' entreaties read more like biblical injunctions, rather than practical ways to solve the complex economic, political, geographic, scientific and religious problems which hinder international cooperation. In nature, on land and in freshwater and oceans, virtually every animal and fish population establishes territorial imperatives. Force and cunning take the place of currency exchanges. Water, the authors insist, must remain a "free" right.

But some "free" water, in its natural state, is loaded with parasites, bacteria, and viruses which are lethal to humans unless treated with sophisticated technology. It requires skilled research and applied science to make water safe for humans and not just from bacteria. In many countries, there are naturally occurring toxins such as arsenic and mercury which are present in some water sources.

"Free" water in fact can have a negative effect on the environment. Prince Philip (ES&E January, 2002), said that one of the main reasons oceanic pollution was hard to police was that, unlike land, 'nobody owns it' and of course, there is the legendary "Tragedy of the Commons" where land adjacent to villages in England was gradually enclosed by feudal lords, or abused by a few, to the ultimate detriment of the land.

The authors lay out some dismal statistics. Groundwater overpumping and aquifer depletion are now serious problems in the world's most intensive agricultural areas and water is being depleted many times faster than nature can replenish it. Mexico City depends on aquifers for 70% of its water, yet pumping exceeds natural recharge by almost 80% every year; at the current rate of extraction, Saudi Arabia will run out of water in 50 years.

The current depletion of Africa's nonrecharging aquifers is estimated at 10 billion cubic metres a year; water tables are falling everywhere throughout India; the water table beneath Beijing, the Chinese capital, has dropped 37 metres over the last four decades; and land beneath Bangkok has sunk because of the massive overpumping of underground systems.

The authors warn that, instead of living on water income, we are irreversibly diminishing water capital. At some time in the near future, water bankruptcy will result. In addition to depleting supplies, groundwater mining causes salt water to invade freshwater aquifers, destroying them. In some cases, groundwater mining actually permanently reduces the earth's capacity to store water through compaction. In 1998, California's Department of Water Resources announced that by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of water nearly as great as all its towns and cities together use today.

The global expansion in mining and manufacturing is increasing the threat of pollution of these underground water supplies. As developing countries are undergoing rapid industrialization, heavy metals, acids and persistent organic pollutants are contaminating the aquifers which provide more than 50% of domestic supplies in most Asian countries.

The book continues with a litany of potential disasters. Over-exploitation of the planet's major river systems is threatening other finite sources of water. The Nile in Egypt, the Ganges in South Asia, the Yellow River in China, and the Colorado River in the US are just some of the major rivers that are so dammed, diverted, or overtapped that little or no fresh water reaches its final destination for significant stretches of time. In fact, the Colorado River is so oversubscribed on its journey through seven US states, that there is virtually nothing left to go out to sea.

Overtapping of groundwater and rivers is exacerbating another potential crisis - world food security. Irrigation for crop production claims 65% of all water used by humans; the annual rise in population means that more water is needed every year for grain production, a highly water intensive activity. But the world's burgeoning cities and industries are demanding and taking more and more of the water earmarked for agriculture every year. Eventually, some dry areas will not be able to serve both the needs of farming and those of the ballooning cities, say the authors.

Throughout Latin America and Asia, the growing of crops for export is claiming more and more of the water once used by family and peasant farmers for food self-sufficiency. There are over 500 free trade zones operating in the developing world, using local water sources for the assembly lines that produce goods for the world's consumer elite.

The litany of polluted waterways and depleted resources presented in Blue Gold is compelling and thought-provoking reading for all environmental professionals.

Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World's Water
By Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
Stoddart, 280 pages, $29.95

¹ Former Nova Scotian, Robert MacNeil, was a long-time anchorman on PBS (MacNeil/Lehrer Report), and has written The Story of English and other titles.

² Ontario Water Works Association/ Ontario Municipal Water Association, Ottawa. For Maude Barlow's 1999 abridged report, visit: www.esemag.com