کمبود آب و آلودگی
 
DROUGHT & DESERTIFICATION
  • Within 50 years, there could be irreversible drought (permanent desertification) in the southwestern US, Southeast Asia, Eastern South America, Western Australia, Southern Europe, Southern Africa, and northern Africa. 1(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA), 2009)
  • The percentage of Earth's land area gripped by severe drought more than doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s.2 (Dai, 2004)
  • Examples of recent regional droughts:
    • China’s northern region, where 10-meter deep cracks began to appear in fields. Without drastic changes in water use, there could be tens of millions of environmental refugees from China appearing within the next ten years.3 (Sept 2010)
    • Having just faced historic floods in 2009 due to a record rise in Amazon River water levels, several communities in Brazil’s Amazonas state have been isolated by drought and can no longer be accessed by boat, only by foot through the forest. 4,5(Sept 2010)
    • Iraq, China, Chad, Australia, Mongolia, Africa’s Sahel region, among others, have been suffering drought conditions in 2010.6,7,8,9,10,11

SHORTAGE: WATER
  • The world's rivers are in a “crisis state” on a global scale. Water supplies for nearly 80% of the world’s populations are highly threatened. Nearly a third of sources studied are also highly jeopardized by biodiversity loss.22,23 (US researchers Professor Peter McIntyre of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and City College of New York modeler Charles Vörösmarty)
  • Recent regional reports on water shortage:
    • The Middle East’s water supply has shrunk to a quarter of its 1960 level.24 (Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), 2010)
    • The Tigris and Euphrates rivers dropped to less than a third of their normal levels due to drought.25 (UN Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit (IAU))
    • UK’s increasingly hotter, drier summers could cause extreme water shortages as river flows are reduced by 80%.26,27 (Britain’s Government Office for Science, 2010)
  • Sources of groundwater for wells, which support half our world’s population, are running dry.28 (Lance Endersbee, Monasy University, Australia)
  • 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.29 (World Health Organization, 2005)
Latest News
Brazilian scientists discover that banana peels help to purify water. - 18 Apr 2011
Dwindling fresh water supplies in California, USA. - 20 Mar 2011
Ancient mega-drought parched Africa and Asia. - 17 Mar 2011
Flood and water catastrophes loom ahead. - 16 Mar 2011
Climate change linked to harmful water-borne diseases. - 15 Mar 2011
Arsenic and other toxins in Âu Lạc's (Vietnam) groundwater. - 24 Feb 2011
Relentless drought puts Chinese at risk. - 20 Feb 2011
China experiences severe drought. - 28 Jan 2011
Somalia's drought results in fatalities and forced migration. - 26 Jan 2011
Syria launches model water scarcity park. - 24 Jan 2011
China's Shandong province suffers drought. - 9 Jan 2011
Experts warn of widespread desertification threat. - 30 Dec 2010
Thousands endangered by Somali drought. - 22 Dec 2010
Water shortage taking toll in Egypt. - 6 Dec 2010
Central China water levels near record lows due to drought. - 5 Dec 2010
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