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October 14, 2002

International Report

The Coming Water Crisis

By William Bedford

CNSNews.com Commentary

September 20, 2002

One of the, seldom mentioned, crucial issues in the Israeli/Palestinian confrontation is who gets to control the vital fresh water supply in that unhappy region. A United Nations' official warns, that future wars may well be fought over fresh water in many areas of the world where the meager supply cannot hope to meet the ever - increasing demand. While a few nations are blessed with an abundance of fresh water, most of the world suffers from an acute shortage of this life sustaining liquid. Countries, such as Canada, that have an abundance of fresh water at their disposal, are being urged to share their water-wealth with less fortunate countries. The problem is, Canadians are very concerned about falling water levels, especially in the Great Lakes and on the prairies. And, following the Walkerton tragedy, we are also concerned about the quality of our drinking water. We‚re also afraid that Canadian fresh water may be classified as just another commodity under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Because of these concerns, any mention of exporting our fresh water causes a national outcry. whenever the water shortage in the arid areas of the U.S. is brought to our attention, the doomsayers can‚t wait to jump upon their soapboxes to denounce any export of Canadian water, on the grounds that we could find ourselves short at some point in the future. Many people are opposed to water exports because they believe, erroneously, that the exported water would be taken directly from the Great Lakes.

It seems strange that we do our utmost to export our non-renewable natural treasures, such as oil, ore, and coal, to just anyone who will buy them, yet we balk at exporting a fraction of the fresh water that we don‚t use. Actually, there is no reason why we shouldn't make a few bucks and create thousands of jobs by wetting the world's thirsty whistles. It's patently wrong that millions of gallons of Canadian fresh water are wasted every hour of every day as our rivers empty uselessly into the oceans, while our friends and neighbors suffer from drought. Some of this water could be scooped up and shipped by tankers to the dry areas of the U.S. without affecting our domestic water needs in the least. We should also study the feasibility of channeling our north flowing rivers into the Great Lakes, and then piping it to arid states like California, and Florida. These two states, by the way, supply us with most of our winter fruits and vegetables. The ecological effect of diverting our northern rivers southward would, of course, require an in-depth study on how it would effect the environment before we'd consent to such a project. Shipping surplus water from the mouths of our rivers by tanker, however, should impose no harmful effects on the environment. And, Canada is not the only source of fresh water for thirsty Americans. The Amazon River flushes so much fresh water into the ocean every day that the sea consists of fresh-water for hundreds miles off its shore. If the U.S. decides to get its water from that source, Canada would be left high and dry, so to speak.

In the long run, of course, shipping fresh water from the soaking-wets to the bone-drys is only a stopgap measure. The final solution to the world's fresh water shortage lies in developing cost-effective desalination, thus, ensuring an endless supply of safe drinking and irrigation water for all the peoples of the world. Even if we tried, we could not deplete the world's oceans.

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