Experts struggle to avert 'freshwater disaster'

As the world inches towards a "freshwater disaster," even Canada should look at reusing household water and diverting waterways to manage drought conditions on the Prairies, water experts warn.

"There is a perception that Canada has a lot of water ... but two-thirds of our rivers flow to the north, where there is hardly any population," said Bill Cosgrove, Montreal-based vice-president of the World Water Council, an international think-tank that promotes awareness of water issues.

"We don't have the amount of water we need in the places we need it."

Mr. Cosgrove is among 800 specialists from around the world gathering today in Sweden for the Stockholm Water Symposium, the first in a series of meetings leading up to the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003.

Participants will be focusing on ways to deal with the acute global water shortage, expected to affect half of the world's population by 2025.

Studies attribute the projected scarcity to overpopulation, pollution and global warming contributing to increasing evaporation.

Mr. Cosgrove said drought conditions in western Canada are a symptom of what's to come, and Canada has been doing a poor job of managing droughts and floods so far. He said scientists can currently predict them, and Canada and other countries must start taking proactive measures, such as changing crop-planting patterns, storing water in good years, and even diverting certain rivers -- from Manitoba to drier Saskatchewan, for example.

Takashi Asano, winner of this year's Stockholm Water Prize (the Nobel equivalent in water circles), will advocate sequential water use as another solution to shortages. Such a system involves re-using sink and shower water for toilets and gardening, for example.

Mr. Asano has also promoted the use of reclaimed water instead of drinking-quality water for such purposes as irrigation, industrial processes, and replenishing depleted groundwater aquifers.

World-renowned University of Alberta ecology professor David Schindler backs such conservation projects over river diversions -- which he said should only be used as a last resort because such diversions could imperil aquatic ecosystems.

Mr. Schindler has attended the symposium in the past, and was awarded the first Stockholm Water Prize for his work on acid rain and the pollution of water by human waste, but he said he is not attending this year because "the science tends to be a little unsophisticated."

This year's symposium will feature workshops on dams, climate change, water policy in the European Union, threats from globalization, problems of urban water supply, and water education in African cities, where the problem is most acute.

Mr. Cosgrove said organizers will be calling for global "hydro solidarity" and focusing on the need for water conservation and sharing to minimize water-related conflicts, such as those now festering in the Middle East.

He pointed out that Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Territories have a joint committee on the management of water resources. When violence erupted last fall, the committee issued a warning that any damage to the water system would hurt all three groups because they are all dependent on the Jordan River. The warning has, so far, been respected.

The prospect of exporting water for sale is also an issue. The idea of doing so for aid, given the global shortage, may be discussed at the symposium.

The prospect of exporting water to Third World countries was condemned by Christine Elwell, senior policy analyst for the Sierra Club of Canada.

"It would drain our lakes, disrupt ecosystems, and it just throws a cup of water onto a huge, raging fire." she said. "We need to conserve at home. There's no sense worrying about consumption abroad when we're water gluttons at home."

Mr. Schindler said population control is key to alleviating the impending "disaster." He said there will not be enough food to go around because of a lack of water, not of land, if the population growth in those areas most affected is not stopped.