Summary: World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued several reports in conjunction with World Water Week, including:
Securing Water for Ecosystems and Human Well-being: The Importance of Environmental Flows — Improved river flow management will be vital to protecting communities from the worst impacts of climate change and to achieving international goals on poverty reduction, according to a new report issued on the eve of World Water Week. The report also finds that river flow management to meet diverse environmental and human needs should be funded through appropriate valuation of the ecosystem services provided by healthy rivers. These include maintenance of groundwater levels, flood and drought mitigation, and contributions to human livelihoods, nutrition and health. More Information.
Water footprinting: Identifying and addressing water risks in the value chain — The total water involved in producing beer is overwhelmingly used on the farm rather than in the brewery, according to a report presented to World Water Week by SAB Miller and WWF. The report evaluated the water footprints – a way of understanding water use through the whole value chain – of SAB Miller beers produced in South Africa and the Czech Republic. More Information.
Pipedreams? A study of interbasin transfers – Large scale transfers of water from one river basin to another are generally occurring without adequate scrutiny of their economic, environmental and social impacts, according to an analysis released to World Water Week by WWF. The study looked at existing and proposed large water transfer schemes in Spain, Australia, Lesotho and South Africa, Greece, Brazil, Peru and China and found the schemes to be high cost, high risk solutions to water problems “with the benefits much less, or likely to be much less, than the sales pitch,” Geiger said. More Information.
Water footprint study of Germany — A study of the water footprint of Germany emphasises how the developed world needs to care for developing world river basins supplying vast quantities of “virtual water” embedded in imported products and commodities. While German households use 124 litres of water a day directly, individual Germans use 5288 litres of water a day when the water requirements of producing their food, clothes and other consumption items are included. The report calculated Germany’s water footprint at 159.5 cubic kilometres of water annually, with only half coming from German rain and rivers. More Information.
More Information: Click the following links to access the reports:
- Securing Water for Ecosystems and Human Well-being: The Importance of Environmental Flows
- Water footprinting: Identifying and addressing water risks in the value chain
- Pipedreams? A study of interbasin transfers
- Water footprint study of Germany
Prepared by: This message was distributed by Kellen Mahoney, who may be reached at e-mail: kmahoney@eetnews.com
