Time running out faster than water: experts

A MAJOR weeklong international water conference opened in the Swedish capital yesterday with an ominous warning: time is running out faster than fresh water.

If the "massive and complex challenges" facing one of the world's most finite natural resources are not resolved soon, the future looks grimly devastating: scarcities, pollution, droughts, floods, desertification and diseases.

Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish minister for international development cooperation, described the recent floods in Pakistan as one of the major natural disasters facing that country.

"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Pakistan,"

she said, of a country where over 60 years of infrastructure development has been literally washed away in a water- related calamity in the flood-affected regions.

Speaking at the opening ceremony in a city surrounded by water, Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), warned: "Bad water kills more people than HIV, malaria and wars together, affecting the lives of families and the economic development of many countries around the world."

"We are also increasingly seeing that ecosystems and their services are being degraded by pollution, which will affect all functions of society," he added.

The conference, attended by more than 2,500 key water experts, will focus on the theme: "Responding to Global

Changes: The Water Quality Challenge."

This is the 20th consecutive year that SIWI is hosting its 'World Water Week' in a city described as Europe's "first green capital".

Addressing the gathering, Dr Rita Colwell, the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, said that shortcomings in addressing the water quality issue, coupled with climate changes, could lead to disastrous outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera.

This, in turn, is bound to affect economic and national security.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) pointedly says that "running out of water is running out of time".

"We are headed for a water crisis," it warns in a new publication authored by Colin Chartres and Samyuktha Varma, and titled 'Out of Water' released here. As the global population is forecast to reach nine billion by 2050, water is becoming scarcer around the world as expanding cities, developing countries and new biofuel crops suck water in ever-greater amounts. from the world's rivers and lakes.IPS