In year 2030 there will be more than 8 billion people on earth. This number of inhabitants will require 60 percent more food than today according to United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Resources Institute concluded that 3 billion of these people will suffer from chronic water shortages.
We know that even without food man can live for weeks, but without water he can only live for a few days. Many slogans say that the future is filled with hope, but this time with a twist- only if mankid will be kind enough to value the resources it has right now, most especially water.
Despite the fact that the only less than one (1) percent of the world's fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use, there are still no effective pricing mechanisms and clearer policies on water rights and access. This is where economic leaders have failed - calculating the true economic value of water so it can be factored into social costs at the community, national and international levels to encourage greater water conservation.
There are many reasons why each of us should make a positive step in the conservation of water resources even if economic experts have not fully developed a mechanism that will measure the true economic costs of water. The health and economic impacts of lack of access to safe water are staggering.
Eight hundred and eighty-four (884) million people approximately one in eight people do not have access to safe water supplies. This problem on water crisis claims more lives through diseases than any war claims through guns.
Less than 1% of the world's fresh water or about (0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use, thereby, increasing the conflicts over cross-boundary water sources. The worst with all these lack of access to clean and safe water is that poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
If people will not recognize the importance of protecting our water resources, every 15 seconds a child will die from a water-related disease or an average of 4 deaths per minute. How much more will be sacrificed for the sake of building stronger industries that pollute our water resources and steal lives?
Industrialization and urbanization pose more challenges to the preservation of quality and access to clean water. Needless to say, water is of primary importance to our survival; thus, protecting it should be the top most priority.
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