Lest we overlook the issues, here are some reports issued in August 1998. The future of the world will be no different just because we ignore local problems.
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WASHINGTON - Nearly half a billion people around the world face shortages of freshwater, and that number is expected to swell to 2.8 billion people by 2025 as the world population grows, according to a report released Wednesday.
"To avoid catastrophe, it is important to act now" to reduce demand for freshwater by slowing population growth, conserving water, polluting less and managing supply and demand of water better, said the report from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.
By 2025, one in every three of the world's projected 8 billion people will live in countries short of freshwater.
A country faces water stress when annual freshwater supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per person. Water-scarce countries have annual freshwater supplies of less than 1,000 cubic meters per person.
Although much of the world is trying to meet a growing demand for freshwater, the situation is worst in developing countries where 95 percent of the 80 million people added to the globe each year are born. In addition, the competition among industrial, urban and agricultural uses for water is mounting in these areas.
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WASHINGTON - The world will grow more thirsty and unstable in the next generation as the number of people facing shortages of fresh water swells to 2.8 billion, according to a private study.
To reduce demand for drinking water in the future, the report from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health recommended that countries conserve water, pollute less, manage supply and demand of water better and slow population growth.
Now, nearly half a billion people don't have enough drinking water. That number is expected to increase to 2.8 billion people by 2025 - or 35 percent of the world's projected 8 billion people, the report said.
Today, 31 countries, mostly in Africa and the Near East, are facing water stress or water scarcity. By 2025, population pressure will push another 17 countries, including India, onto the list. China, with a projected 2025 population of 1.5 billion, will not be far behind, said the report.
A country faces water stress when annual fresh-water supplies drop below 445,090 gallons per person. Water-scarce countries have annual fresh-water supplies of fewer than 262,000 gallons per person.
Although much of the world is trying to meet a growing demand for fresh water, the situation is worst in developing countries where about 95 percent of the 80 million people added to the globe each year are born. In addition, the competition among industrial, urban and agricultural uses for water is mounting there, the report said.
There is no more fresh water on Earth now than there was 2,000 years ago, when the population was less than 3 percent of its current size.
Even in the United States, groundwater is being used at a rate 25 percent greater than its replenishment rate, the report said.
The report warned that regional conflicts over water could turn violent as shortages grow. And as people use more water, less is left for vital ecosystems on which humans and other species depend. Globally, more than 20 percent of all freshwater fish species are endangered or have recently become extinct.
According to the report, California has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands during the past two centuries, causing two-thirds of the state's native fish to become extinct or decline.
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EMBARRASSMENT: Heavy rainfall in recent weeks may be responsible for the contamination, a health official says.
SYDNEY, Australia - For the second time in a month, Sydney residents awoke Wednesday to warnings that the tap water in the city that will hold the 2000 Olympics is unfit to drink.
In a city that considers itself one of the world's most modern and smooth functioning, water fountains in school playgrounds were shut down and signs put up in office blocks cautioning people not to drink the water unless it had been boiled for at least a minute.
The alert has incensed residents, who were instructed for a week in late July to boil then- water or risk serious illness after dangerous microscopic parasites giardia and cryptosporidium turned up in the city's water system.
After that scare, Sydney's main water treatment plant was cleaned and the water system flushed with fresh water A $21 million upgrade of' the city's water infrastructure also was announced.
Testing showed the levels cryptosporidium were higher this time than the previous scare, Health Department Director-General Mick Reid said Wednesday
"It's a bloody horror at the moment that you can't drink the water," said Michael Knight, president of the Sydney Games organizing committee.
Though no cases of illness have been reported as a result of either outbreak in Sydney, state opposition leader Peter Collins said the scare was a serious threat to the city's in international prestige.
"This is not a novelty anymore. This is starting to look like a regular problem in Sydney," he said.
The New South Wales state Health Department said the tests that found high levels of giardia and cryptosporidium in the city's water system were conducted Monday. it issued a health warning to the vast majority of Sydney's 3.7 million residents.
Boiled water should be used for drinking, cleaning teeth, gargling, washing uncooked foods such as salads and making ice, the department said. Schoolchildren should take bottled water to school.
Giardia, normally spread through human or animal fecal matter, can cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. Cryptosporidium is spread in similar fashion. It causes flu like symptoms and can kill people with weak immune systems, including the very young and the elderly,
The outbreak has caused severe embarrassment for Australia's largest city. On top of the Olympics, the earlier scare came the day Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defense Secretary William Cohen attended meetings in the city.
State Premier Bob Carr said the source of the latest outbreak had not been pinpointed, but Reid, the Health Department director-general, said heavy rainfall in the Sydney catchment area in recent weeks may be responsible for the contamination.
An inquiry is under way, and water treatment experts from Chicago and Britain were being flown in to assist. One theory is that dead dogs found in waterways leading to a water treatment plant tainted the system.
Two senior executives of Sydney Water have resigned since the July scare, which recalled a 1993 disaster in Milwaukee, Wis. In that case, cryptosporidium got into the city's water supply and killed about 100 people, More than 400,000 others were sickened.
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