Whose Water Is It, Anyway? by Maude Barlow

Faced with Day Zero, the date when the city had been expected to run out of water, Cape Town was forced to police its citizens, ensuring that only water absolutely necessary for life was used. In her talk, Barlow gives the example of Cape Town in South Africa, home to many a golf course and luxury swimming pool. Brazil, which has never suffered from drought in its entire history, was stricken in recent years, thanks in part to the razing of the Amazon rainforest.īut perhaps the most shocking aspect of the global water crisis is the human ability to pretend that it’s simply not happening. A number of countries in the Middle East are slated for serious water depletion, and many of China’s major rivers have completely disappeared. In India, river systems are polluted beyond human use. At a recent talk at the University of California, she offered some statistics from the UN that were both startling and grim.īy 2030, the global demand for water will exceed supply by 40 per cent.īy 2050, seven billion people will be affected by water crises.Īs she recounted, 22 countries in Africa are in a water crisis.

The scale of the problem is difficult to comprehend, but Barlow lays it all out in plain language and blunt numbers. Please enable JavaScript before you proceed. Your browser either doesn't support JavaScript or you have it turned off.

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Whose Water Is It, Anyway? by Maude Barlow