A special project for the knowledge site: mapping the world's water problems

We live in a country that is more than half desert and behave like we are sitting on the shore of a Swiss lake

The year 2003 was declared by the United Nations as the "International Year for Fresh Water". That is, in that year, various international institutions were supposed to set an agenda for bringing the water problem to global public awareness, (a problem that is comparable to atmospheric warming in recent times), to outline courses of action, to carry out plans to alleviate the water shortage in problem areas and to outline policies (national, regional, global) for use in the water.

Earth, water and air are the main elements of our world without which there is no life. The land is becoming "privatized", more and more areas are controlled by private or "public" bodies and its inhabitants are subordinated even though they didn't know it until now. The air is still free, but its quality is getting damaged, (at the hands of the same factors). What remained was the water: the same liquid that makes up about seventy percent of our bodies and in a similar proportion covers the earth. However, most of the globe is covered by oceans and salty seas, which, although they constitute a diverse and rich habitat, are not suitable for immediate use.

More than ninety-five percent of the water is salty, the rest is mostly concentrated in glaciers and even these are not immediately available, so that less than one percent is left to the authority of fresh water consumers, and we are among them. This water is not divided geographically or climatically and the result is areas with freshwater on the one hand and deserts on the other.

As a source of life, water has always been a cause of friction and wars, or alternately a social and romantic meeting place and a center of community activity, (the stories of our Bible and the traditions of other nations). As the world (human) population grows, more water is used, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the use becomes more wasteful, careless, and polluting, according to UN researchers: in 2020, 18 percent more water will be required than is available to feed and irrigate the world's population.

Pumping water without thinking about refilling is similar to overdrawing from the bank without funding sources for refunds. In a controlled vision in a technologically (and culturally) advanced world. We would expect a more efficient and sustainable utilization, this is mainly in areas where there is no (yet) distress, but it turns out that even those who "sit on streams of water" have less and less time.

The "Great Lakes" region (Superior, Michigan, Erie) in North America is perhaps one of the richest in water, huge cities and their suburbs such as: Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toronto, draw water directly from the lakes and springs that feed them, the lakes contain about 90 percent of the water of the United States 20 percent of the world's water.

Despite the impressive numbers, when the people of the "Mi Peria" concern asked to use one of the springs to fill bottles (for sale in the Midwest of the USA) they encountered strong opposition from the surrounding rural residents, this is because according to the residents, the springs from which the water can be drunk without treatment are diminishing and purification.

The lakes that together form the largest body of fresh water in the world are polluted, their waters are forbidden to drink and in some of them, baptism is forbidden! Purification and improvement works have been carried out regularly since that time for the well-being of the people living around the lakes and for development possibilities: Canada intends to sell water (from Lake Superior) to countries in Asia!, the USA plans to transfer water to the south and to Mexico. The residents of the area have established a body to wait for the implementation of the plans by not harming the quantity and quality of the water, that is, before pumping, the pumpers must ensure refilling, it is not clear how.

The need for the US to move water south comes from the depletion of the main aquifer - the Ogallala) from which the residents of: Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas draw, countries with huge agricultural areas. as well as from a continuous drought in the western regions.
The Colorado water that flows from the US to Mexico is supposed to be divided according to agreements between US and Mexican consumers, since US consumers are upstream, they draw all the water they need (regardless of political agreements) and of course in Mexico there is a shortage that leads to recurring conflicts .

In Mexico itself, the problem is exacerbated, one of the largest cities in the world - Mexico City is sinking, literally, in addition to the frequent earthquakes, it turns out that pumping far beyond the filling capacity of wells has led to a sharp drop in the groundwater level and the result: the city is sinking.
Bangkok and Venice are also sinking for similar reasons and phenomena (a phenomenon similar - but different to what happens on the Dead Sea - coast) south of there in the land blessed with water Brazil, and its neighbors are planning a network of canals that will connect the great rivers Parana and Paraguay and allow the movement of ships, for this purpose It will be necessary to deepen sections of existing rivers and stabilize their banks, the damage to the fishermen who make a living from the rivers will be severe, much more severe will be the environmental damage that will be caused by the creation of connections between species and populations that were in isolation and now may be destroyed by foreign species that penetrated the system through the water "bridges".

The program called Hidrovia was taken out of the dungeons after ten years ago it was removed from the program due to pressure from green bodies and due to lack of funding, today there is funding and the danger to the special water bodies of South America is once again lurking at the door.

In Australia, which is considered one of the driest countries, the settlers looked for a way to divert rivers flowing to the coast into the desert. Ambitious implementation of the "snow river" into the continent to irrigate dry areas causes an environmental, agricultural, settlement, ongoing disaster. The water of the Mota River is used to irrigate areas between the drainage basins of the two longest rivers in Australia - the Darling and the Murray, in the past plowing covered the agricultural areas, trees that "sucked" their water from the depths were created and in their place annual crops are grown (which draw water close to the surface), changing the vegetation cover , and the cultivation of irrigated fields (irrigation) lead to the enrichment of the groundwater horizon that rises close to the surface and causes the salinization of agricultural areas (immediately), groundwater close to the surface rises (capillary rise), evaporates, and leaves minerals (salts) on the surface. (Similar situation to our salts).

The salinity that endangers the drainage basins of the neighboring rivers, all this in an area that produces three-quarters of Australia's largest irrigated (irrigated) water.

We all hear about the floods in Bangladesh every year. Recently, a grandiose plan has been "brewing" in India to divert some of the water in the rivers fed by the Himalayan glaciers - the Ganges and the Brahmaputra - in canals that will carry water to drought-stricken areas in the south of the subcontinent.
The execution of this plan will cost about 75 billion dollars and will be completed in about 15 years, the result will be the expansion of the irrigated agricultural areas in the south and east of India on the one hand, but on the other hand a decrease of about 30 percent in the amount of water that will reach Bangladesh where most of the inhabitants live by growing rice, (down the rivers millions will be affected people), Bangladesh was already damaged, when in 1967 a dam was built on the Ganges, the dam diverted part of the water and the result is that in northern Bangladesh the fields are drying up. On the other hand, when the flow increases in the upper part of the river, the Indians are forced to release quantities beyond the dam and then floods are caused.

Floods are also caused by deforestation in the drainage basins of the rivers as well as by the increased melting of glaciers (as a result of global warming). The Bangladeshis are of course strongly opposed to the implementation of the plan that will dry up millions of dunams of rice growing areas and leave millions of people thirsty (and hungry) and the issue is being discussed in international institutions.

The northern plains of China are irrigated by three rivers, three of which are polluted and cause diseases in people and animals, the pollution limits their use for irrigation only, water for domestic use and drinking is carried by the women from wells dug far from the polluted rivers. The Yellow River, which is supposed to irrigate one of the most important agricultural areas in China, dries up every year for many days, and thus due to the competition of industry and urban consumption, agriculture is left without water, the groundwater level in the northern plains has fallen by about one and a half meters, this in an area that until twenty years ago supplied a third of China's agricultural produce and today is considered to a drought-stricken area.

In half of the cities of "advanced" Europe, groundwater is pumped above the refilling capacity, that is, without considering the future in an unsustainable way.

In Catalonia, Spain, 4.5 million inhabitants suffer from a chronic lack of water and therefore there is pressure to lay a pipeline that will carry water from the Rhone River in France, which is the largest, closest and most reliable water source (still).

The Po River in Italy is dry and running low because of a lack of rain, but also due to the wasteful use of water for agriculture and industry (without recycling). The expectation is for a 40 percent decrease in agricultural produce in the Po valley, in a central power plant water from the Po is used for cooling, and if the situation does not improve, the station may go on strike.

The Aral Sea in Kazakhstan was considered one of the largest lakes in the world and its surroundings a fertile agricultural area.

In the middle of the last century, the Soviets diverted the two big rivers that fed the sea: the Amu (Amu) and the Syre (Syre) were diverted to grow cotton areas, and the result: the Aral Sea dries up.

Fishing settlements that used to be on the shore of the lake are now dozens of kilometers away, the fishing boats are standing adrift and the fishermen are without a livelihood, the lake's surroundings have become a dusty, salty, sterile and barren plain, the lake's waters are so salty that the animal life in it is disappearing, recently a rescue plan for "Earl" is being carried out The little one:
Funded by the World Bank 85 million dollars. A branch of the lake that is about one-tenth the size of the original size of the Aral is separated from the main body of water by a sandy shoal, the intention is to raise the shoal and create a complete separation between the parts of the lake, and then flow into the "Little Aral" the little water that reaches the lake, thus lowering the salinity level and saving at least one male Lake is dead (similar to our patient).

The Zambezi flows from Angola through Zambia (falls at Victoria Falls) and Zimbabwe crosses Mozambique and flows into the Indian Ocean, is considered one of the five largest rivers in the world on the one hand, and on the other hand is considered the river with the most concentrated (intensive) use of its waters, use without planning and without any future vision or contemporary thought, dams and systems Irrigation is built around it without any consideration of the results, the best example is the Kariba Dam, the construction of the dam created a large lake (Lake Kariba) that flooded settlement areas, agriculture, historical remains and archeologists, all for the sake of generating electricity. In the Zambezi drainage basin, wild deforestation is taking place which leaves the area bare, in the past the trees were used as a regulator for the heavy rains (up to 2000 mm per season) that fall every season, the water would be absorbed into the forested soil and flow throughout the year, today because of the deforestation every rain causes extreme floods On the one hand, during the dry seasons, the level of the river drops to such an extent that it can be crossed on foot. (In 1996 I crossed the river at the top of Victoria Falls).

Because of the need to generate electricity at the Kariba Dam, water is stored in the lake during the dry seasons, which prevents water supply to Mozambique, however, following the rainy seasons, water is forced to be released without control and then destructive floods are caused down the river. In March 2000, the area was hit by the most devastating flood on record. A flood that inundated many settlements and left hundreds dead, hundreds - thousands destitute, several months after the flood the same area was hit by dryness and drought.

Lake Chad is fed by the Chari and the Logone. In both the water is decreasing due to overuse and stoppage of rains. According to researchers, overgrazing in the savannah around the lake causes the area to lighten (dark plant cover is disappearing), a lightening that affects the local climate and leads to a reduction in the amount of rainfall (which is the lowest in Laos). The area of ​​the lake today is less than a tenth of its size at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Fishermen who sat on the shores of the lake are today a long way away and the daily walk to fish in the lake is not profitable since the quantities of fish are decreasing. Farmers who supplied their produce to the big cities do not take out their household needs. The lake spills into Nigeria and there the phenomenon intensifies since the main river that crosses the country is no longer "what it was". The waters of the Niger are polluted with industrial effluents and raw sewage and residents who live on its shores walk many kilometers to bring water for domestic use and to water the domestic animals, this phenomenon of women living near a river and bringing drinking water from long distances is common all over Asia, Africa, and South America, areas that are supposedly rich in water do not succeed to satisfy the needs of their inhabitants mainly because of the pollution of the flowing water sources.

The Nile is considered the longest river in the world and also one of the most important water sources for the countries of East Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia and of course Egypt. About 130 million people live along the length of the Nile and its sources, who use water (use on a local scale). But all the countries through which the Nile flows are prohibited from building large water plants or using the water on a large scale.

At the beginning of the last century, the English were interested in controlling the Suez Canal, which gave them sea routes to India. According to their approach, whoever controls Suez must control the Egyptians, and whoever wants to control the Egyptians must control the Nile and its sources (hence the search for the sources of the Nile). That is why they enforced: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, signing a contract (1929), prohibiting them from using Nile water by building large water plants, and "massive and intensive" use of the waters of Lake Victoria. According to the same contract, Ethiopia is also prevented from building water plants, even though the Blue Nile, which carries about 85 percent of the river's water, flows through its territory.

In 1959, following pressure from Sudan, the "pie" was redistributed and Sudan was allowed to use more water (18 percent). Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania remain "transparent" and without permission to use the water.

Before their "separation" from East Africa, the English managed to pollute Lake Victoria (part of the sources of the Nile) by introducing a predatory fish that does not belong to the lake system. The Nile stinger (known to us as the Nile princess) is a large and fat carnivore. As a predator, the Nile stinger destroys the special fish of the lake and causes the destruction of environmental systems. As an oily fish, it is not suitable for the form of processing used by the fishermen around the lake - processing by drying in the sun. The lake and with it all the systems around it were damaged, but the English are no longer around.

The same contract that prevents the development of systems from the Nile water still exists and is binding. In 1991, Egypt threatened to start a war against those who did not respect this contract. Bad - Bad - Egypt is implementing a plan to "bloom the desert" by mining the Sheikh Zayed - Tushka canal that will lead the Nile water west to the Libyan desert (Western desert). The canal, whose final length will be about 600 km, will provide water that will allow the expansion of agricultural areas by hundreds of thousands and ships that will sail in the canal will transport the agricultural products to the center of Egypt.

Despite protests and the demand of green organizations, Egypt has no intention of checking the environmental effects of the canal and if the plan goes ahead, the canal will be completed by 2008.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda come back and demand to be allowed to use the water of Lake Victoria (which is only about 15 percent of the sources of the Nile), but so far without success.

In Iraq: in addition to all his exploits, Saddam made sure to divert the Euphrates and the Tigris to failed irrigation plants, when behind the scenes the intention was to dry up the swamps that form the Euphrates and the Tigris near the Persian Gulf, in the swamps where the opponents of the regime lived (at least that's what he thought). Mission accomplished. The swamps dry up and the human inhabitants of the swamps and their unique culture disappear. After the victory of the allied forces, various bodies and organizations gathered for a discussion in an attempt to find ways to save the marshes, which are a parking and nesting place for hundreds of bird species, what and how to do it is still unclear.

Turkey is accused by Syria and Iraq of later building a series of dams on the Euphrates and the Tigris, thus depriving its neighbors of water. At the same time, the development of an ambitious project to sell Manavgat river water to its neighbors in the Middle East (including us). In the southeast of the country, a dam (one of the largest in the world) is being built, mainly designed to generate electricity, the Llisu dam will create a lake that will cover important archaeological and historical remains. Whole villages will become a lake and their inhabitants will be evacuated (about 150 thousand inhabitants). European companies participate in the construction and despite the protests of the green bodies, the local residents, Iraq and Syria, Turkey continues its construction.

With us: it is hard to ignore the water problems we have with our neighbors, from a survey submitted to the UN it turns out that out of 12 armed conflicts over water between countries, many were "ours". But if we still ignore them, it turns out that even on our own we are "getting along fine": when I was young in Kibbutz Shafiim, we knew that the water in "Well A - which was the westernmost one, closest to the sea, was the best for drinking, more than all the wells that were far to the east." Today "Well - A" is sealed because its water is salty, the phenomenon of salinization of wells returns along the length and breadth of the coastal plain. In the coastal lowlands, wells are closed due to pollution from fertilizers coming from agricultural fields and heavy metals from industrial plants and the like.

All coastal streams are polluted (or dry). The water of the Sea of ​​Galilee, which is supposed to supply about a third of Israel's consumption, is getting polluted in sewage and the "red line" is arbitrarily adjusted to needs that do not take into account the facts. The drying of the Hula did not provide the hoped-for agricultural areas, but eliminated the natural system for filtering and purifying the water that reaches the Sea of ​​Galilee.

In the Dead Sea, which is a unique phenomenon in our world (and in the solar system), a billion cubic meters of water are missing every year and the result for the environment, settlements, tourism, (and in the next step also for the potash plants whose contribution to the situation is known) can only be defined as a disaster.

A little to the south - in Eilat they use what is supposed to be the solution to a large part of the water problem in our country and in the world - water desalination, but a large part of the water source for desalination is drawn from the southern Arabah from a brackish water horizon that was close to 6-12 meters below the surface. Since the start of pumping, the water level has dropped by more than 6 meters.

The residents of Eilat will not have a problem, they will simply increase the pumping from the sea to make up for the shortfall, but the damage can be seen on the ground: the fall of the water horizon in the Arava causes the underground flow to decrease in the wadis and the immediate result is the drying out of many of the trees growing in these wadis.

All of the above (negative) phenomena could have been prevented or at least reduced if the institutions (and the water users) had not behaved in irresponsible ignorance driven by short-term and inconsiderate stakeholders.

We live in a country where more than half of it is desert and we act like we are sitting on the shore of a Swiss lake!

Two fifths of the world's population face a lack of water and fill hospitals as a result of diseases related to (unclean) water. Every person in the West consumes ten times (up to forty times) more water than those belonging to those two fifths. It was said that if the consumption of the "saturated" areas could be reduced by 20 percent, the problem of the "thirsty" could be solved. But the problem of transporting water to the needy will still remain, so the above statement is completely impractical.

And yet the solution has to be global as the threat is getting closer. At the gathering of the UN institutions dealing with water that took place at the beginning of March 2003 in Paris, the gathering was informed that: in the last fifty years the consumption of water in the world has doubled, at the same time the pollution of the existing water sources continues. The expected climate changes and the continued increase in the number of consumers (the human population), are bringing the situation where water shortage will be a "catastrophic" situation.

According to data provided at the conference, the people of the West consume 10-40 times more water than the inhabitants of the third world. A policy without awareness (ignorance), leads to waste and pollution of existing water sources and inactivity to open additional sources. The gathering was a preparation for a conference in Kyoto, Japan (23/3/03) where the participants were presented with additional data to illustrate the problem and suggestions for solutions.

According to the data provided: the five most problematic areas are: Kuwait, the Gaza Strip, the United Arab Emirates, the Bahamas, and Qatar. In contrast, the five water-rich regions are: French Guinea, Iceland, Guyana, Suriname, Congo. In both rich and poor areas, about 60 percent of the pumped water is wasted for various reasons and forms: leakage from pipes, inefficiency in use, lack of circulation and of course pollution.

Kenya's water minister said that in Nairobi 40 percent of the water "disappears" between the supplier and the consumers, and this is just one example.

Due to population growth on the one hand and depletion of sources on the other hand, average personal consumption is expected to decrease by a third. Of course, this is a statistical number which means that - in problem areas there will be a lot of water shortage, while in the western world they will pay more for the "drink of life". Many international bodies are sitting in Switzerland that discuss trying to find a solution to what is defined as "the most immediate and pressing problem" since many researchers "predict" that in the next 25 years most wars will break out because of water disputes.

Indeed, Switzerland itself provides an example and provides part of the solution: due to fear of contamination of their water sources (and not because of a lack), the water in urban settlements is recycled to the point of almost perfect recycling - so that the Swiss say they use (and drink) every drop of water seven times!
A partial solution that sounds like a fictional movie is to drag glaciers to problem areas, but the solution proponents did not take into account the expected climate changes - and the fact that towing glaciers means adding water to the global system, and if one of the concerns from climate change is sea level rise (flooding of coastal plains and low-lying islands) then that adding water to the system will increase and stimulate it.

Therefore, the correct solution (if there is one) is: maximum recycling, prevention of pollution, cleaning of polluted sources, saving (drip irrigation), desalination of sea water. In other words - intelligent and sustainable use of the existing sources.

A practical solution that can immediately alleviate the water shortage in "thirsty" countries is the import of food, especially grain kernels.

Since about seventy percent of the water is used for agriculture, those who receive (in return or without) agricultural products imported from "saturated" countries will (immediately) save 70 percent of the water. The water (like other natural resources) is available for our use, but we certainly do not have the permission or the right to use this resource to its fullest.

Since every solution, despite being economical and worth a proper long-term account, its immediate meaning is a large financial expenditure. And since immediate solutions are needed (more) in "non-rich" countries, it can be assumed that in the coming years we (westerners) will continue to drink water from bottles, while women in Africa, South America, India, and Asia will continue to walk many miles to wells that are drying up to bring water to hungry families!