World summit addresses water problems

"Aquathin OP-ED Commentary"

     The quick read below concerns the World Summit on Sustainable Development meeting taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa. Water, lack of it, quality of it, disposal of it... is a key and most immediate concern.

Now many of you who have visited Aquathin or attended Aquathin University know that I was an avid scuba diver and heard the story how our dive team inadvertently was caught in a current and pulled directly into the sewage outfall stream (mmmmmmm yum!) off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. We were at about 60 feet and fortunately one of the team had a flash light as the water was black and zero (and I mean zero!) visibility. With the light, we could see the billowing treated sewage and rain runoff entering the ocean from a huge cave like pipe. Guess what color is the ocean floor. No its not black or brown. That stuff is consumed by the hundreds of thousands of fish feeding on the smorgasbord. Theb color is white!  I could not believe it.  The floor was deep in non-biodegradable cigeratte filters.  I fanned my fin at the floor and the filters were far more than 3 feet deep. No telling how deep nor how wide radius this was. Incredible !

 

World summit addresses water problems

 

     JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development today tackled ways to quench the planet's growing thirst and provide sanitation to billions of the world's poor who do without either every day.

The world gathering entered its third day here with the focus shifting to water issues, according to Reuters news service.

Nearly one in five people or 1.1 billion men, women and children do not have access to fresh water, according to studies sponsored by the United Nations, while 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation.  The Associated Press (AP) reported that despite these problems, few governments have focused attention on the water issue, said Margaret Catley-Carlson, chairwoman of the Global Water Partnership, AP reported.

"Why is water management not more of a priority?" she asked, according to AP, noting that activists need to push for better water management throughout the world.

The United Nations hoped the summit would agree to cut in half by 2015 not only the number of people without access to clean water, but also to sanitation, the news service said.  "It's important not only that people should be able to get drinking water, but to be able to get rid of waste water," said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, according to AP.

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Edited from Tech Bank 8/28/02