We're running out of water

[Delphinus]

Martin Lagod
San Francisco Chronicle Open Forum
Sunday, July 8, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/08/EDGOTQ8JBS1.DTL

When I took my oldest daughter to college for the first time, I was struck by the number of students I saw lugging bottled water into their dorm rooms, case after case. Wasn't tap water good enough for these kids, I wondered? Why pay $2 a bottle for something that I always thought of as free?

Of course, water has never been free, and we take it for granted at our peril. Envision a future when a $2 bottle of water will seem cheap, when water scarcity drives up its price, leading to mass suffering, riots and, quite possibly, water wars. In parts of the world, this is already reality. The fact is our planet is in danger of running out of potable water faster than we realize.

According to data collected from NASA and the World Health Organization, 4 billion people will face water shortages by 2050. Already in China, water levels in the Yellow River -- a source that supplies more than 150 million people -- are down 33 percent from the average. In China's cities, wastewater pollution and inadequate treatment facilities have contaminated the water consumed by more than half the population. Of its 669 major cities, 440 face moderate to severe water shortages. The Chinese government -- desperately seeking solutions -- calls the water shortage a social, environmental and economic crisis.

(snip)

This might have been posted in the Editorial forum, but I thought it needed to be available here.

[glowing]

1. Wouldn't it be nice if the EPA was as powerful as the pentagon?

[donsu]

2. the EPA is as powerful as the neo con pentagon, because the

EPA has been taken over by the neo cons

the EPA will not save us

[glowing]

4. I don't think they have quite th e funding the pentagon and its war

machine does. I think it has been run over by this administration particularly.... The EPA was a great idea, but it should remain completely free from politics, and remain strong on the environmental protection, no matter what that means to someone's friends... it needs more funding and better protection.

[baby_bear]

3. I just wish EPA had the guts it used to have

The White House, DOD and OMB have decimated EPA's will and power since 2001.

In fact, EPA could do a lot on the international front, including the potable water issues, given a decent budget and deference to science, not right wing politics.

b_b

[XemaSab]

5. The mandate of the EPA is to provide CLEAN water

(along with local public health departments and regional water quality control boards).

It's the mandate of the Bureau of Reclamation as well as local water companies to provide water.

[depakid]

6. Be careful what you wish for....

[philb]

7. Bottled water is not the answer; no evidence bottled water safer than tap water in general

Its mostly become a highly promoted commercial enterprise, a way to make those who control and sell it a lot of money.