ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Water, Water Everywhere, But…

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Nov 29 2002 (IPS) - With some of the world’s largest fresh water reserves, Russia could still face a shortage of fresh water, officials and environmentalists say.

"Growing deficiency of clean fresh water is among Russia’s most urgent macro-economic and geopolitical problems," says natural resources minister Vitaly Artyukhov. The government is short of money to sustain water supply and irrigation facilities, Artyukhov said in an official statement.

Artyukhov’s statement came as a surprise because officials have often claimed that Russia has some of the world’s largest supplies of fresh water.

The Washington-based World Resources Institute figures that Brazil has 12.7 per cent of the world’s renewable supply of fresh water, Russia has 10.2 per cent and China 8.3 per cent.

Russia has impressive resources, including some 2.5 million rivers and springs, and about two million fresh water lakes. These include major lakes like Baikal, Ladoga and Onega. The 1.6 kilometre deep Baikal holds about 23,000 cubic kilometres of water transparent up to a depth of 40 metres. Russia also has vast polar ice and underground water reserves.

These resources are being used liberally. Russia draws an average of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year. Some sub-Saharan African nations draw less than 10 cubic metres per person per year.

But about half the available water flows north into the Arctic and is no use to the south and west where most people live, work and farm. A large amount of water is wasted through rusting pipes and leaking taps.

More than two-thirds of Russia’s 143.5 million population have only limited access to clean water because of the decaying supply system and industrial pollution, Alexey Kiselyov, water expert with Greenpeace Russia told IPS.

The vast fresh water reserves are dropping fast, says Kiselyov. The minister is right to warn people about a likely shortage of clean water, he said.

A United Nations-sponsored World Water Forum in Stockholm suggested in August last year that shortage of drinking water could affect a third of the world’s population by 2025 and spark violent conflicts between those with water and those without. About 450 million people in 29 countries from sub-Saharan Africa through Asia are suffering from severe water problems, experts said at the meeting.

With present consumption patterns, about three billion people around the world will be living in areas where it will be difficult or impossible to get fresh water by 2025, according to estimates by the World Water Forum. Half of them are expected to face severe shortages.

Earth has an estimated 36 million cubic kilometres of fresh water, or some 2.5 per cent of the total water on earth. Of this, the available fresh water not locked in polar ice sheets or inaccessible underground is estimated at 11 million cubic kilometres, according to the International Water Management Institute. Fresh water supplies are falling, and as a result of the global climate change, this trend is expected to continue.

The newly created Federal Water Service in Russia will seek to regulate water supply. It will take charge also of Russia’s system of dykes that hold water reserves, officials say.

There are an estimated 30,000 water reservoirs and dykes of which some 2,300 are unattended. About 6,000 facilities are more than 30 years old, says Russia’s deputy natural resources minister Nikolai Tarasov, who is also head of Russia’s Federal Water Service.

Crumbling dykes have taken their toll. Last summer flood waters burst through dykes in the north Caucasus region, and destroyed about 60,000 houses. The floods caused more than 400 million dollars worth of damage, according to the natural resources ministry. These dilapidated facilities also hinder normal water supply.

ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Water, Water Everywhere, But…

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Nov 29 2002 (IPS) - With some of the world’s largest fresh water reserves, Russia could still face a shortage of fresh water, officials and environmentalists say.
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