Preventing Water Wars

Just wrote this on Kenneth Cole's AWEARNESS blog:

"Gold. Oil. H2O? We tend to forget that fresh water is a more valuable commodity than crude oil. Water is the indispensable resource, the sine qua non, on which human survival depends. And although water covers approximately 70 percent of the earth's surface, only about 3 percent of the planet's supply is fresh and thus suitable for consumption. Further, as the world's population increases, the competition for fresh water grows tighter. The United Nations estimates a global population of 9 billion by mid-century. Jeffrey D. Sachs wrote in Scientific American in January:

"Look closely at the violence in Afghanistan, Chad, Ethiopia, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan--one finds tribal and often pastoralist communities struggling to survive deepening ecological crises. Water scarcity, in particular, has been a source of territorial conflict when traditional systems of land management fail in the face of rising populations and temperatures and declining rainfall."

More here.