Everyone owns the problem and has a stake in cleaning it up. Global fresh water supplies are being used up so fast that almost half a billion people already depend on nonrenewable sources, an international conference was told today. Water riots such as those in China's Shandong province last month will become more common as people struggle for control of dwindling supplies, said Lester Brown, chairman of the U.S.-based Worldwatch Institute. Thousands of Chinese farmers clashed with police in July after officials cut off water leaking from a dam near Anqiu village in Shandong province, according to a human rights group. This is going to happen more and more.
Water suddenly becomes an issue when the wells run dry.
Over-pumping of aquifers in China, India, the Middle East and United States now exceeds 160 billion tons of water per year, according to Brown, who delivered a keynote address when the conference opened Monday. Since it takes roughly 1,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain, this excessive pumping is equal to 160 million tons of grain, or half the U.S. grain harvest. Nations in practice preferred diplomacy, realizing that stopping a neighbor's water meant cutting off life, he said in a speech at the conference, which is organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute. Industry is already adapting to the challenge of water shortage, Paul Tebo, a corporate vice president of U.S. chemical company DuPont told a news conference. The seminar will tackle the impact of finite water resources on all aspects of human behavior, particularly the most efficient ways of producing food.