The 1st Essay(Final) handed in on the 11th May 09

ID＃; 131111

Sec.; BB

Name; Takuro IROHIRA

Life or Death; For which the water flow away.

　Given The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most fundamental materials for everyone to live should be the most fundamental Human Rights to be protected and enjoyed forever. However, one of the most important ones has recently been lost at an alarming rate for the great capacity for destruction, which could be said to be the potential of human beings, under the name of the development, or the globalization; freshwater. In Japan, there are few opportunities to be aware of this fact that the clean freshwater is lost forever because there seems to be much water around, but looking at the world, even now, nearly 2 billion people live in water stressed regions blind for developed countriesⁱ. Today, this issue is as urgent and impending to deal with as climate change, but has very little attention paid to it in comparisonⁱⁱ. In the near future, all the world will no doubt face to “the water crisis”, even in the developed countries, including Japan, because its influence would seriously be wide-spreading around the world. Now, it comes to the phase to have to consider it for this era to survive this difficulty.

　There are three main causes for the water crisis according to a documentⁱⁱⁱ. The first one is polluting, diverting, and depleting the finite water resources. The document says that ninety percent of wastewater produced in the Third World is discharged, untreated, into local rivers, streams, and coastal waters^iv. For example, wells poisoned by arsenic in Bangladesh, and rivers poisoned by heavy metals and wastewater from industry in China have caused serious health problems of the inhabitants^v, and in irrigation, much water evaporate in vain before reaching the goal, what is worse, to harvest just 1 kg of the rice, flour, or meat, much more than ten to one thousand kg of water is required. These examples show that how much water is used in vain, and how little the developed countries have attention to it. Furthermore, polluting water also means that it would devastate the clean freshwater available, or the watershed itself^vi, which is nothing less than to destroy the foundation of the hydrology cycle itself which should be for the next generations.

　The second one is climate change, which has a lot to do with the water crisis^vii. Of the changes caused by climate change, the rise in the sea level is thought to be one of the most serious ones, because it will bring more damage from salt to the soil for cultivation, which will lead to the reduction in the production of food; especially in the poorest countries where there is not enough food for the people to eat regularly even now, or in the countries whose most food depends on foreign countries, the damage cannot be expected.

　Added to the above, as water is not only involved in food, but in the sanitation, once the waterborne epidemic prevails in the countries with poor infrastructure, the number of people who die of the epidemic cannot be small, and then, the water will be divided between the rich and the poor, which make the injustice. That is not only the case of epidemics, but other diseases, such as cancer caused by some carcinogen or heavy metals melting in the wastewater as mentioned before. In fact, the number of people killed by the problems of water is more than by war, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and traffic accidents combined^viii.

　The third one is surging population growth of unprecedented magnitude. A statistics^ix shows that, at the growing rate these days, by 2025 two-thirds of the world's population will face water scarcity, and by 2050, after added another 3 billion to the global population today, 80 percent increase in water supplies will be required just to feed the whole population. Under such circumstance these days, without any change, enough freshwater would never be supplied.

　These are raised as the causes of the water crisis, but it is obvious that the globalization (or just industry) is no less than the factor, which makes this matter more serious. The freshwater companies can produce the great benefit for them, and the consumers of their commodities never died out, but it also means that whether we live or not depends on them, because they have an actual monopoly right to sell it; if they do not sell, no one can buy. Everyone will be at the mercy of their market strategy to live themselves. The companies must be convicted of the abuse of Human Rights. However, under the market based principle, the conviction of them seems to bear no fruit, making it worse.

　As a result of these arguments, what the water crisis is can more or less be understood, and the problem would be remembered to be not only the scarcity of water but also the inequity for the access to the clean freshwater between the rich and the poor; it is needed to discuss the water conservation and the water justice. Unfortunately, they are, however, apparently like an inconclusive impasse.

　Without the political will, the purpose to achieve the sustainable development for the future cannot be come true in the end^x. In the time water is becoming the just commodity for sale, not regarded as one of the Human Rights, nothing less than the responsible political will is dispensable for the blighting future. As French poet, Saint-Exupery wrote about his experience when lost in the desert in his famous work "Wind, Sand, and Stars", the water is nothing less than the life itself. Such heritage of the water should be taken over by the next generations, and to do so, it is necessary to do some responsible actions for the lives, the water, to flow to the next era. This is the very thing to be known here. It should be focused on this matter to solve them by the responsible and informed citizens, and must be known that what the world is to be if nothing would have been done to solve this matter. It is not too much to say that the cost to pay no attention may be much higher than that to pay for the future. In other word, it could be said that for which, Life or Death, the lives flow away depends on the decision and the following actions.

i　 Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?, The American Prospect, Princeton, Jun.2008.(http:/proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=9&did=1489711261&Src...)

ii　 Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

iii　Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

iv　Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

v　 Daily Asahi evening paper, 12^th May, 2008, 04.

vi　Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

vii Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

viii Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

ix　Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

x　 Maude Barlow, Where Has All the Water Gone?

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 NOTES

　 Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke, Blue Gold, Stoddart Publishing, Toronto, 2002.

　 Maude Barlow, Blue Covenant: The Alternative Water Future, Monthly Review, New York, Jul/Aug, 2008.

　 Brita Belli, WHO OWNS THE WATER?, E: Environmental Magazine, Norwalk, Jan/Feb 2009, 59.