sachs on water stress and conflict

Before engaging on this topic, I would just like to say that Sachs seems to make very bold statements and seems that he has much confidence in his plans and ideas to fix many of today's world problems. I for one, would like to see these plans in action. His statements all have factual evidence that prove the point he is trying to make. His observation and remedy to the rise of water stress, for instance, is a very good example.

Sachs takes all viewpoints and situations into perspective and tries to come up with the best solution to solve this problem. A rise in water stress, he says, combined with other pressures, will worsen food security. He goes on to mention a colleague of his who said that "drops in rainfall [in Africa] are associated with significantly more conflict...There is strong evidence that better rainfall makes conflict less likely in Africa." Pretty bold statement, no? The issue here isn't the fact that there is no water. Look around us, our earth is 70% ocean. However, there are places in the world that are either landlocked and/or dried out, and they have no means possible to retrieve clean water for their villages/towns. If any poverty-stricken places do have access to water, they most likely don't have any access to filter systems or any such device to clean all of the parasites and bacteria that live in them. Therefore the issue is always one of those two; either no water at all, or no clean water.

Sachs feels that "countries need to develop holistic plans of action" which address these 5 areas:

-Safe drinking water and sanitation for all

-Increased water efficiency in agriculture, including the development of drought-resistant seed varieties and new irrigation strategies

-Increased attention to droughts through improved water storage

-Reduced economic risks through rainfall insurance

-Economic diversification and international trade to reduce the dependency of livelihoods on rainfall

A lack of water brings up many issues, as you can see. As it one thing happens, it creates a sort of domino effect and negatively impacting something else. For example, if a farmer is experiencing a drought in his land, he can't grow crops. Because he can't grow crops, he can't profit off of anything, and he'll start losing customers to buy/sell/trade with. And with no profit, he can't support his family. For any instance, one general water problem will cause many problems with that as well. Sach's solutions like physical infrastructure (producing clean water from seawater), and rainfall insurance are great solutions to our water problems. Like I said, look around, there's water everywhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html

This article shares a story of a woman from Charlestown, VA who complains of problems with tap water in her home. This is also problematic because the whole town has access to the water, but many complain of their skin burning, rashing, and even eating away at their teeth because of lead, barium and other toxic wastes that don't get properly filtered out in their water. So what would Sachs do in a situation like this, a town that has access to water and a filter system, but an obviously faulty one? Many organizations, such as UNICEF and EPA need to get involved and make changes so that more people, even local people, can have access to cleaner water.

In a global perspective, this could be accomplished by more holistic plans and actions, and with effort from everyone. The issue here isn't saving water, but finding a way for people to use it for all that it can be used for.

-Aaron Suh