UK water use 'worsening global crisis'

Posted April 19th, 2010 by Ian Jones
in

ENGINEERS: WATER CRISIS COULD THREATEN UK’S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The UK’s reliance on ‘virtual’ water, in imported food and other supplies, is exacerbating water shortages in other countries, engineering experts have said. They warn the UK’s future development could be threatened if we do not address the escalating global water crisis with urgency.
In a new report the Engineering the future alliance* warns that with population growth, urbanisation, changing diets, pollution of water resources and climate change, global water resources are set to become even more stressed. Two thirds of the UK’s water footprint is now effectively imported in the form of food, energy and other goods, that require water for production and transportation from countries that are themselves under water stress.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8628832.stm
Full Report
http://www.ice.org.uk/downloads/gws.pdf
*An alliance including the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management

Water Security: Global and Regional Challenges

On May 18th, 2010 ianjones says:

Around the world, global water problems continue to grow, adversely affecting people, prosperity and national security. This policy brief examines the scope of the problem and identifies a number of important policy considerations for addressing the issues related to this complex matter.

While the management of the world’s water resources takes place primarily at the local level, this paper focuses on more complicated issues relating to the international management of trans-boundary water resources, an area of water security that does not currently receive enough attention in the literature.

The paper begins with an overview of the current global water problem, considering it from social, economic and environmental perspectives, and focusing on the challenging issue of trans-boundary waters. A second section considers the global policy framework in place to address the issue of water insecurity, before a final section evaluates various policy alternatives, including rule of law initiatives that might help to strengthen this framework.

This policy brief is one of a series supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
http://www.ippr.org.uk/members/download.asp?f=/ecomm/files/Water%20secur...