With the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, the main source of fresh water supplies to major rivers of the continent, Asia is heading towards fresh water crisis. A new US State Department Report said that the reduced fresh water availability in Asia could affect more than one billion people by the middle of this century. It has stressed on safe water and sanitation strategy in developing countries.
The point made by the State department report is that globally by 2020 between 75 and 250 million people are expected to be under "water stress" due to climate shifts and population growth.
"Increased floods and changes in coastal water temperatures could result in greater morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease," said the report. Apart from the lower yields in rain fed agriculture, climate shifts in the short term can also impact the frequency and severity of droughts, floods and heat waves, added the report. It further said that from a longer term perspective climate change could lead to changes in snow and glacier run off that feed water supplies and to increases in coastal flooding and salt water intrusion. "All of these changes will impact the economic and cultural systems that have developed in response to current climatic conditions," the report has maintained
"Unless fundamental changes occur in water management practices, the region will experience harsh water shortages that will adversely impact economic growth," the report said.
"Water demand for domestic and industrial uses is exploding in the ANE (Asia and the Near East) region, while irrigated agriculture is also expanding. Much of the water crisis in the region is caused by poor operation and maintenance, inappropriate technology, and weak technical and financial management."
"To meet basic human needs for water and mitigate tensions over increasingly scarce water resources, ANE countries need to pursue a different path to water resources development and management. This path involves bold, concerted action by governments, water users, donors, and the private sector working in partnership," the report said.
"Water utility reform, combined with sustainable capital market financing, can help reverse this trend and is critical to meeting the needs of developing countries in water and sanitation. In developing countries, the water and sewage utilities are often operating far below sustainable cost recovery levels as they struggle to maintain even the currently inadequate levels of service" it said.
"This also means they are even less able to attract the capital needed to expand service delivery to the poor populations in slums and villages lacking access to safe water supply and sanitation services," the report added.