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 Editorials | Environmental | March 2006 
As Water Crisis Gets Bigger, Some Experts Say Smaller is Better
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | A group of water activists chant slogans and shake empty water bottles as they walk through the World Water Forum in Mexico City Sunday. About 50 activists walked through the forum Sunday, protesting the forum and water management around the world. (AP) |
Mexico City The colossal numbers behind the world water crisis are daunting: 1.1 billion people don't have clean water, causing diseases that kill 3.1 million people a year; 1.7 million deaths could be prevented just with better sanitation.
But some experts and activists at the 4th World Water Forum being held in Mexico City until Wednesday, like to start with smaller numbers. Like six.
That's the average number of kilometers (3.75 miles) that women in developing countries walk each day to fetch water.
Along with the small numbers, some activists are advocating some small solutions.
In Tibet, residents are installing waist-high water taps, so women can fill their jugs and not injure themselves by bending over to pick them up.
A World Bank project that moved water taps closer to villages in Morocco increased school attendance by girls in six provinces by 20 percent over four years as time spent carrying water was reduced by 50 to 90 percent.
Such projects cost mere pennies in comparison with big dams.
But there are other small numbers, like seven. That's the percentage of Africa's hydropower potential that's taken advantage of compared to 75 percent for Europe.
A majority of people in Africa don't have regular electricity service, so they burn firewood or brush, causing environmental damage.
Some group say massive hydroelectric dams could fix these problems.
Investment in hydroelectric infrastructure is not a choice anymore for Africa, it is a must, Jamal Shagir, the World Bank's director of water and energy, said on Friday during the presentation of a report on the continent's water problems.
Anna Tibaijuka, of the U.N. Habitat agency, said some towns in Africa have so little electricity that they can't operate pumps to extract water from wells.
Africa must invest in water and hydroelectric infrastructure in the long term to eradicate poverty, said Haoua Outman Djame, the water minister of Chad.
Gerald Galloway, a civil engineering professor and visiting scholar with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that while small projects can be useful in some circumstances, big dams can be easier to maintain.
We've seen that when you have lots of them (dams), they're not easy to inspect and the specifications tend to be not quite at the same level as those for large dams, Galloway said, referring to the United States where four small, older dams burst in the last year.
Others insist that small is beautiful.
It's going to be all the problems with big dams revisited, said Jamie Pittock, director of the World Wildlife Fund.
Instead of big dams or irrigation projects whose water doesn't reach the smallest, remote farms Pittock's group is promoting the restoration of thousands of small, community earthen dams built as long ago as the 13th century.
As well as including big numbers and big projects, the debate on the water crisis also includes big words.
Experts throw around phrases like Integrated Water Resources Management, or IWRM, and Multi-stakeholder Processes.
IWRM may sound as bad a typhoid, but most experts agree on it. It means taking into account all the effects of a dam before you build it, sizing the dam according to the needs it is to meet, and using it wisely, rather than as a big water tap installed on a river.
Multi-stakeholder process means bringing together everybody affected by or benefiting from a project from the planning stage. It means taking their opinions seriously, and presenting alternatives, not a take-it-or-leave-it approach.
Perhaps, experts will be able to find some smaller words to say that. |
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