Earth Equity News

The Pending Global Scramble for Water. Commentary by Dominic Waughray, BBC, February 8, 2009. "In 2008, Saudi Arabia ceased to be self sufficient in wheat production. It is looking to access land overseas to grow crops, possibly in Pakistan or the Horn of Africa. China is acquiring agricultural land in Southern Africa for similar purposes. And Daewoo Logistic is looking to lease land in Madagascar, to grow food for South Korea. Other countries in South Asia and the Gulf are considering similar moves. None of these countries needs the land for the sake of territorial expansion. What they need the land for is more fundamental: food. In all these cases, it is a shortage of water that has prompted this move. The experience of Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea today could be a foretaste of what will follow elsewhere... Without bold water reforms in national agricultural policies or reform to the global trade system, bilateral land-for-water deals will inevitably increase. Such deals may seem rational now, but the scale of the problem in the next two decades demands a global solution. Under business as usual, by 2030 we could see multiple countries from South Asia and the Middle East competing with each other to secure bilateral land-for-water deals: cash-rich, water-poor nations competing to secure deals with water-rich nations around the world... The scramble for water has begun, and governments must react; the implications of doing nothing are too profound to contemplate." Dominic Waughray is the senior director for environmental initiatives with the World Economic Forum.