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Talks over Mideast water dispute
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Experts from more than 100 countries are gathering in Stockholm to discuss one of the world's great environmental crises -- the earth's limited water resources. Among items on the agenda at the World Water Week and the United Nations International Year of Freshwater is how to manage the water shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority areas. Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians will meet peacefully to discuss how to maintain a safe and reliable water supply. The U.N. has warned that conflict in the region is damaging water reserves, soils, forests and native species, possibly beyond repair. The Jordan River and regional springs run through disputed territories, such as the West Bank, and the distribution of water in that region is not balanced. "Some Palestinians are suffering from water shortage -- they have less water per capita than Israelis," Robin Twite, from the Israel and Palestine Center for Research and Information, told CNN. "This is a very arid area, rainfall is low, population is increasingly rapidly, it is being developed and industrialized -- there is a serious problem that would be there irrespective of the political situation." The Middle East has 5 percent of the world's population but it has less than 1 percent of its renewable fresh water, says the Stockholm International Water Institute. "There are still crops being grown in Israel that use a lot of water that probably should not be grown and in Palestinian territories there isn't enough use being made of waste water because, for political reasons, the waste water from the cities is not being treated properly and therefore cannot be used for agriculture," added Twite. "Everybody recognizes that the problems in the region can only be solved if the Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians work together. "The Israelis would say that they are doing their best to secure a reasonable distribution and the Palestinians would say the opposite. The problems won't be solved by mutual accusations." The meeting in Stockholm, which lasts until August 16, will examine ways to combat catastrophic floods to so-called "virtual water" -- the water required to produce food for consumption. According to the U.N., nearly one and a half billion people have no access to clean drinking water. Most of these live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Professor Tony Allan, Professor of Geography at the University of London, said more investment was needed to ensure local sources of water could be fit for drinking. The U.N. estimates that by 2050, seven billion people in 60 countries may face water scarcity. It says about 2 million tons of waste are dumped into rivers, lakes and streams each day, and about seven million people die each year of waterborne diseases. -- CNN's Andrew Carey contributed to this report.
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