Asia facing worsening water crisis, warns ADB

Farmers and food security advocates protest in front of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), bearing streamers and placards in Manila on Tuesday. – Photo by AFP

MANILA: Asia is facing a worsening water crisis that threatens to curtail food production while taking an increasingly heavy toll on the region’s economies, the Asian Development Bank said on Tuesday.

People, governments and industries around the region urgently need to stop wasting so much of the precious resource if they are to limit the shortage, ADB infrastructure adviser Arjun Thapan said.

“The water footprint in our towns and cities, in our irrigation systems, our energy production systems and in industry in general, is extravagant,” Mr Thapan said at a water crisis conference hosted by the Manila-based lending bank.

“It needs to shrink and Asia needs to become acutely conscious of the scarcity value of its accessible fresh water, and the imperative of efficiency in managing it.”

In a report, the ADB faulted weak enforcement of laws for the degradation of Asian water quality, with between 80 and 89 per cent of all untreated wastewater leaching into fresh water in east and south Asia, respectively.

“In short, Asia is witnessing a despoliation of its freshwater resources with disastrous consequences for ecological balance and environmental sustainability,” the bank said.

It also highlighted that while irrigated agriculture uses up 80 per cent of the region’s fresh water, there have been only very minimal moves to boost irrigation efficiency over the past two decades.

At least nine billion dollars’ worth of treated water was lost each year in Asia’s cities, the ADB said.

Climate change, rapid industrialisation, water pollution, dietary shifts and the drive to grow biofuels are also expected to deepen the water crisis, according to Mr Thapan.

On current trends, this would lead to a 40 per cent gap between water demand and supply in Asia by 2030.

“The impact is going to be greatest on food production and investment in the energy sector,” Mr Thapan told a news conference.

“All of these, doubtless, is going to impact on overall economic growth.” Among the region’s largest countries, the ADB estimated India would face a water deficit of 50 per cent by 2030 while China would have a shortage of 25 per cent.—AFP

source dawn news