Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

1 4 4 / C H A L L E N G E S T O L I F E A N D W E L L - B E I N GProtecting Ecosystems for People and PlanetTable 6.8: Examples of wetland loss in arid EurasiaWetland Attributed causes Immediate effectsAral SeaArea reduced from more than 65,000 km 2 to about Excess water withdrawals from these rivers, primarily Health status of the human population reduced;28,500 km 2 in 1998. Total volume has fallen by for cotton irrigation in latter half of twentieth commercial fishery has collapsed; waterlogging and75 percent, and salinity has greatly increased century salinization have degraded agricultural landMesopotamian wetlandsLoss of about 90 percent of the lakes and Primarily a result of major hydrological engineering Marsh Arab populations have dispersed, andmarshlands in the lower Mesopotamian wetlands works in southern Iraq (Major Outfall Drain diverts biodiversity is at great risk; there are likely to be a rangein the last three decades water to the head of the Gulf) of other hugely significant impactsAzraq OasisMuch of the former marshland area lost; but Increased groundwater extraction for urban needs in Important wetland staging post for Eurasia-Africasignificant resupply now underway within Jordan (about 2 million m 3 in 1979 to about 25 million migrant bird populations have been impactedGEF-funded UNDP projectm 3 in 1993) plus increased agricultural irrigationSource: Groombridge and Jenkins, 2002.of loss. Table 6.8 provides an illustration of losses at three globallyimportant wetland regions (in the broader sense of the definition).The wetland areas of Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe are a typical example ofa vulnerable ecosystem under pressure from industrial discharge andpollution (see box 6.3 and chapter 17).RiversReviews of information around the world suggest that rivers alsohave become significantly degraded. In connection with the new EUFramework Directive (EEC, 2000), the WWF European FreshwaterProgramme collated and analysed data on fifty-five rivers (sixty-nineriver stretches) in sixteen countries (WWF, 2001). Their key findingsare the following:■ fifty out of sixty-nine river stretches in Europe are found to be inpoor ecological condition due to the impacts of canalization,dams, pollution and altered flow regimes; and■ only five out of fifty-five rivers are considered almost pristine,and only the upper sections of the fourteen largest rivers inEurope retain ‘good ecological status’ as required by the EU WFD.Similarly a recent review (UNESCAP, 2000) of the state of theenvironment in the Asia-Pacific region concluded, for example, that:■ the median count of Escherichia coli or thermo-tolerant coliformsin rivers of mainland Asia overall is fifty times higher than WHOguidelines, and higher still in the South-East Asia subregion;■ around half of the rivers have exceedingly high nutrientconcentrations; many water bodies, particularly in South-EastAsia, contain heavy metals in excess of WHO basic water qualitystandards; and■ sedimentation and rising salinity are widespread problems.Levels of suspended solids in rivers in Asia have risen by a factor offour over the last three decades. Asian rivers also have a BOD some1.4 times the global average, along with three times as manybacteria from human waste. They also include rivers that havetwenty times more lead than that in surface waters of theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)countries. A report on the state of India’s rivers concluded thatIndia’s rivers, especially the smaller ones, have all turnedinto toxic streams. And even the big ones like the Gangaare far from pure. The assault on India’s rivers – frompopulation growth, agricultural modernisation,urbanisation and industrialisation – is enormous andgrowing by the day.… Most Indian cities get a large partof their drinking water from rivers. This entire life standsthreatened (CSE, 1999, p. 58).Such a statement holds true for many other rivers in Asia andaround the world.In the United States, about 40 percent of streams, lakes andestuaries that were assessed in 1998 (that is about 32 percent ofthe country’s waters) were not clean enough to support uses such