by Paul Lines

Created on: August 23, 2008

Water is one of the basic commodities of human life, yet freshwater supplies throughout the world are being threatened today by the effects of climate change. In the western world we complain about being inconvenienced by hosepipe bans and occasional disruption to water supplies, but in many poorer countries people are dying of thirst or having to walk for hours each day to collect meagre supplies of one of the world's most precious resources. That is the position today.

However, a recent fourth report from the IPCC (http://www.ipcc.ch/) suggested climate change is likely to exacerbate these shortages by decades earlier than expected and this was confirmed in a recent statement by Professor, a climate scientist with the UK Met Office. The report further indicates that these water shortages are set to affect 3.2 billion people, which is approaching half of the world's population. For example, by 2020 a quarter of a billion people in Africa alone could be faced with chronic water shortages.

Climate change in the form of rising temperatures is increasing the rate of evaporation of the limited supplies of fresh water from natural springs and lakes in places like Africa. Soon, instead of walking hours for water these people from the worlds poorer nations will have to walk days, with many dying in the attempt. Changes and reductions in rainfall patterns in these areas are adding to the potential disaster, killing agriculture and natural vegetation, which is turning previously moist laden areas that helped to replenish water supplies into barren deserts. In the coastal areas of many poorer countries, rising sea levels and incidences of tidal waves are serving to contaminate fresh water supplies.

The net result is that in the poorer countries of the world, especially those experiencing the worst effects of climate change, consumption of fresh clean water supplies are outstripping nature's future ability, limited by climate change, to replenish fresh water supplies.

Current irrigation and fresh water projects in poor countries are already failing to keep up with the citizen's needs in these nations. The concern is that, as water shortages become more critical and start to impact upon the developed world, unless there are changes to the way the world addresses climate change and the fresh water issues, the developed nations will be too busy quenching the thirst of their own people to consider those dying in poor countries that lack our resources

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