Tunza The UNEP Magazine for Youth - For Young People, by Young People, About Young People

so 2003 is the UN year of freshwater. What is actually being done this year to solve the water crisis? Taona Matsveru, Zimbabwe		One of the centre pieces has been the 3rd World Water Forum held in Kyoto, Japan, in March. Here, more than 100 plans were approved. These include over $500 million to Asian cities for water and sanitation projects, around $50 million for community water projects, and an International Flood Network to boost flood warnings for an estimated 4.8 billion people.

How much would it really cost in total to get clean water to all the people in the world? Is this something we can accomplish? Why aren’t we doing it? Isabelle Dérobert, France		Maybe as much as an extra $30 billion a year. But putting a precise figure on this can be misleading as it will ultimately depend on how wisely the funds are spent. Progress has been made in some areas in recent years. The percentage of people being served with improved water supplies increased from 4.1 billion, or 79 per cent, in 1990 to 4.9 billion, 82 per cent, in 2000.

How should people store water for future generations? Ratikanta Sahu, India		It doesn’t have to be high tech and super pricey. One way is rainwater harvesting. In China for example, 17 provinces are now harvesting enough rainwater using mini dams, containers and such like to provide drinking water for 15 million people and back-up irrigation for 1.2 million hectares. UNEP, with Tonji University, will be replicating this blue-print across poor countries. In Kenya, we are working with the Maasai people to carry out similar harvesting to reduce the long and time-consuming treks women make in search of water.

If so much of our freshwater is locked away in icebergs, why can’t we make that water available to people? Suhail Abdul Hameed, India		Towing icebergs from the poles to thirsty places has so far been a pipe dream. But a Canadian company, Iceberg Corp, has signed a deal with Greenland to harvest icebergs so let’s see what happens. It is probably only a goer for Arctic bergs. Ones from Antarctica would be likely to melt away in the warmer southern seas before getting to water-needy nations.

If global warming is melting the icebergs, shouldn’t that increase the amount of freshwater available for our use? Reynaldo Cuneta, the Philippines		You can’t actually harvest the melting water of an iceberg. All that meltwater is doing is making the sea a little less salty and sea levels a bit higher.

Why don’t we desalinate seawater on a large scale for areas that suffer droughts? Serena Mansfield, UK		Some countries can afford this technology. Saudi Arabia for example. There are also proposals for California. But in most countries it is too expensive. And often, areas suffering droughts are simply too far away from the sea. So it is impractical from that angle too.

Do you have questions on environment and development issues that you would like the experts at UNEP to answer? Please send them to cpiinfo@unep.org, and we will try and answer them in future issues.

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