Water Problems
Where' s the water?
Water. If you've got it, you probably take it for granted. But a quick look at the globe -- and a chat with the tiny group of researchers who are worrying about fresh water --- both indicate that water shortages are very serious.
And they aren't necessarily in the future, either. Here' s what we' ve read in the past week or so.
... Mexico City (home to 20 million people) is sinking because the city sucks out underground water faster than the aquifer can be refilled.
... Florida wants to refill its overpumped aquifer (蓄水层) with untreated surface water, despite federal regulations to the contrary.
... Texas is moving toward private, for-profit water sales. The water will be "mined" from aquifers that are disappearing fast. No word on what the private suppliers, including corporate raider T. Boone Pickens, will do once the aquifers run dry.
... Aquifers around the world are being overtapped for irrigated agriculture, which fills about 40 percent of the global larder.
... The Bush Administration has withdrawn a proposed tightening of the arsenic standard for drinking water. Critics say the old rule, dating to 1942, could allow thousands of cases of cancer and other diseases. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, what' s been called the "largest poisoning of a population in history" has 35 to 77 million people drinking arsenic-laced water.
... A showdown is looming over the Tigris(底格里斯河) and Euphrates Rivers （幼发拉底河）, which originate in Turkey, theft water both Syria and Iraq. If Turkey goes 'ahead with a series of dams, the downriver nations could starve.
You don' t miss your water, an old blues sage wisely said, until your well runs dry. Down here on planet Earth, the well is starting to run dry. We've seen projections that three billion people --half of today's population -- will be short of water in 2025.
Places short of water
Seen from a global water map, water is shortest in equatorial countries, often where populations are rising. Here are some examples of countries facing water shortage problem.
China, with 1.26 billion people, is "the one area worrying most people most of the time," says Marq de: Villiers, author of the recently published "Water ". In dry Northern China, he says, "the water tame is dropping one meter per year due to overpumping, and the Chinese admit that 300 cities are running short. They are diverting water from agriculture and farmers are going out of business." Some Chinese rivers are so polluted with heavy metals that they can' t be used for irrigation, he adds.
"They' re disgraceful, unusable, industrial sewers," says de Villiers. As farmers go out of business, China will have to import more food.
In India, home to 1.002 billion people, key aquifers are being overpumped, and the soil is growing saltier through contamination with irrigation water. Irrigation was a key to increasing food production in India during the green revolution, and as the population surges toward a projected 1.363 billion in 2025, its crops will continue to depend on clean water and clean soil.
Israel (population 6.2 million), invented many water-conserving technologies, but water withdrawals still exceed resupply. Overpumping of aquifers along the coast is allowing seawater to pollute drinking water. Like neighboring Jordan, Israel is largely dependent on the Jordan River for fresh water.
Water Fight
Egypt, whose population of 68 million may reach 97 million by 2025, gets essentially no rainfall. All agriculture is irrigated by seasonal floods from the Nile River, and from water stored behind the Aswan High Dam. Any interference with water flow by Sudan or Ethiopia could starve Egypt.
"The Nile is one I worry about," says Sandra Poste
A．Y
B．N
C．NG
题目内容
（请给出正确答案）
如搜索结果不匹配，请 联系老师 获取答案
