As a result of demographic and economic development pressures, North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia will face major challenges coping with water problems. Water problems will hinder the ability of key countries to produce food and generate energy, posing a risk to global food markets and hobbling economic growth. The report listed the following “Key Judgments”: During the next 10 years, many countries important to the United States will experience water problems-shortages, poor water quality, or floods-that will risk instability and state failure, increase regional tensions, and distract them from working with the United States on important US policy objectives.īetween now and 2040, fresh water availability will not keep up with demand absent more effective management of water resources. All of these would combine with great increases in water usage into a perfect, waterless storm. government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a terrifying report with a jarringly simple title: “Global Water Security.” Using data from across the intelligence community, the report painted a stark picture of decreased rainfall, depletion and degradation of groundwater, contamination, and continued waste. It was about the looming global water crisis. Siegel sat in on a briefing by an American intelligence official. In March 2012, a skinny, bespectacled man with black wavy hair and a soft New York accent named Seth M. In fact, as a new book shows, they already are. For this reason, Israelis will be at the heart of any effort to solve the global water crisis. This has resulted in a water revolution unlike anywhere else on earth a revolution not just of technology, but of thought, policy, and culture. Today, it leads the way in solving problems of water supply, spearheading efforts to deal with water leakage, farming efficiency, recycling waste, desalination, pricing policy, and education. Founded on a dry strip of land smaller than New Hampshire, saddled with absorbing millions of immigrants, Israel has been worrying about water for a very long time. The country that has dedicated the greatest resources, innovation, and cultural attention to the problem of water scarcity is Israel. All these solutions have been in the works for more than half a century. If we had to start today, it would take decades to come up with the answers.īut we don’t have to start today. We need policies that encourage all of these things without undercutting economic growth and our way of life. We need farming methods that use much less water, and better ways to prevent leakage and contamination. We need methods for procuring usable water, not just from lakes and rivers and rain, but also from the sea and our own waste. To make sure supply stays ahead of demand, we need to talk about where we get water, how we use it, and what happens to it afterwards. Solutions will come only from changing the way we find and use water. The world’s water problem is being caused by multiple simultaneous factors: Reduced rainfall, increased population, and the rapid development of impoverished societies have all come together to deplete the amount of water available to humankind. Fully effective solutions to the water crisis have already been found. It is also a problem that can be decisively solved without anything remotely resembling the economic restructuring and political acrobatics required to address climate change. And its catastrophic effects are playing out more clearly and more quickly. It is more acute and more concrete, in that it focuses on a single resource without which humanity cannot live. Though this water crisis overlaps with the more widely-discussed problem of climate change, it is different in many ways. Water shortages will soon lead to increasing political instability, displacement of populations, and, more likely than not, political unrest and war. The world is in a water crisis, one that will grow more severe in the coming decade. As the world becomes more aware of the importance of conserving water, they are turning to Israel for exports and expertise. Israel could not have made the desert bloom without its incredible innovations in water technology.
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