Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: An access to potable water will provide, in the future, present to us in our future, if we take our current rate of depletion as a yardstick it will become a point of global conflict. However, like all the other resources in the world, water does renew itself. However, the filtration systems and the micro ecosystem to support drinkable water that isn’t kind of chemically enhanced, will of course - does present a whole different scenario for us. So, how can we have sufficient clean water without conflict? Well, we need to start dealing with the issues that now would result in us not having that water; which is actually an environment which is in serious red alert. There is no way in which we can sustain a balanced ecosystem that will provide us with clean water. You know, it is interesting for us to note that there is very little clean water left; water that we consume that isn’t already polluted. That isn’t chemically treated for us before we have it. The water table is being saturated by heavy metals. So maybe we’ll have to create water in a laboratory or something. But certainly, we need to start rehabilitating the earth, and that means you and me. We have to change the way in which we use the stuff that the earth provides us. We have to start with ourselves, and how we use and utilize the earth’s resources, because that ecosystem is out of balance.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I would say that the world can’t actually get sufficient clean water without conflict in the sense that it will take social conflict, it will take protests, it will take struggle in order to bring about a social order that provides sufficient clean water for people. The question of whether having done that there would then be conflict over water is a different question, which perhaps is underlying the concern of the group that has posed this question. But, I think that creates an artificial mistake in understanding of why there is conflict over water in the world today. And really, if we could bring about the kind of struggle, engage in the kind of conflict that it would take to fight to make water universally accessible, the current basis of conflicts over water and other resources would disappear.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Sold to the highest bidder, water has to be seen as a human right. And once it is seen as a human right, it becomes the obligation of the government, it becomes an obligation of the international community of states to ensure that everyone has access to plain drinking water instead of allowing a few corporations to privatize and control water and then sell it to the highest bidder. And it will also take basically changes in our lifestyle, our ability to demand water as a human right and our ability to make sure that our demand for human right to water is met. It is time basically to turn on those taps when we want a glass of water and conserving water instead of reaching out for a bottle of bottled water.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: …are now on the planet in terms of a crisis in realizing that there is not sufficient clean water for people. For all the people. And it’s an important commodity, essence of life obviously, we know that. And so, is it possible to organize our culture in a way that there can be ample water for all people without conflict? Absolutely, yes. And as there can be food without conflict from people and the shared resources of our planet. That really depends upon the consciousness with which we handle these issues. And the old model, which is clearly dysfunctional of an ego-based culture of scarcity and competition, feeds kind of conflict and aggressive way of hoarding resources in a mentality of fear rather than the awakened culture, global consciousness. And which there is understood to be abundance all through the culture and all across the planet. If we organize our lives based upon this global consciousness and spirituality, there would certainly be ample water, food, funding, money, clothing, love, compassion. Ample for everyone if we live in that consciousness of a sustainable culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: [beginning portion of audio not available]You have stays clean. We have to become more mindful not to pollute our water, to be able to regulate industries that pollute water and waterways with chemicals. So we have to be stricter about not only creating laws but enforcing laws that will ensure that this valuable resource is kept clean. Conflict, whether it's about water or any other natural resource, has to be examined in light of whose interests are being served by creating conflict over resources. Conflict is not necessary, nor should we anticipate it as an inevitable consequence in being able to share, distribute, and allocate natural resources. The concern that I have with this question is the underlying presupposition or almost an acceptance that conflict becomes part and parcel of the distribution of resources. And while that certainly has been historically -- especially within our recent history -- borne out, I think we need to have an increasing commitment to not accept that as an inevitability and to find ways that we can understand how to share natural resources in a way that will celebrate our ability to cooperate with each other in sharing the necessities of keeping our life-forms alive.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: We can argue about water, we can fight for water, but this is not producing more water, we won’t have more water. We have to care for water, in the first instance we have to care for our water resources, to keep them clean and to treat them right. We have to care for not to waste water. There is an immense amount of water which is wasted and after all and first of all we have to produce water. There won’t stay enough water resources in the world, if we are not producing water. To produce water means particularly to desalt water. This is absolutely possible. Maybe, it isn’t always profitable. That’s because we don’t invest enough and because we don’t produce enough in particular. The more water will be desalted in larger scale, the cheaper it will get. Well, to care better for water resources, to waste less water, to use water right, especially in agriculture, to clean water, to clean waste water, that’s absolutely possibly, especially for agriculture, but after all I am repeating: First of all let’s desalt water!

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: It’s something that everyone should have equal access to. If we continually to put water, privatizing water and see how can we make a profit of a water, then not it will become, they’ll be taking out of commons and given authority as something that someone owns. And then if you own it and you’re not going to allow everyone to have it, unless they must pay your price. And if people will say, “No, we have access to this water”, there’ll be some conflict. We need to return it into the common sector so that it is acceptable in all cultures that we have access to sufficient clean water. And once this is accepted and acknowledged, then, there should be no conflict. We can erase even the concept of the conflict by simply having it as a natural way, just like property -- the land. How can everyone has sufficient land without conflicts? This is a deep question just about property and property rights, and about the commons, so we need to look more about how we view the commons of land, water, air, food, soil, all these things. When we reclaim out commons, it’ll be a good thing, a good thing, a good thing.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: [inaudible] globally. We need to have a trans-boundary approach for resources like water where can see water as - that need agreements that goes beyond political borders. That this can be a shared resource where we can give water to everyone, and that everyone would have access to this resource. And that we can share - places were there's a lot of rain can really give water to places that doesn't have the possibility to have water to grow agricultural crops or to give water to their population. So I think we need to take aawy that national perspective of some of these resources and give it a more global dimension, and where countries could come to agreement and manage resources in a more, you know, integrated way, politically, economically, and socially.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: Doing drip irrigation rather than flood irrigation for example. We can also spread around technologies such as the use of filtration or ultraviolet to clean drinking water. We’ve seen the introduction of a straw you can drink from which costs a couple of dollars, lasts for a couple of years which will filter out most known contaminants. The work I do in Greentech Investing we’re seeing an enormous number of business plans where people can find new ways of cleaning up the water at low cost. We can hope that desalination technologies will come to exist that lower the cost of desalinated water low enough that it’s practical to do agriculture in the desert, essentially, with desalinated water. We need a factor of maybe two improvements so that it appears to be economically possible. It seems within reach in the next decade or two using new technologies. The other thing we can do is we can use advanced technology satellite radar and other technologies to make better maps of where underground water resources are and use them to augment the existing sources of water realizing all the while that if we’re bringing up fossil water that that won’t be a sustainable thing such as we see in the Midwestern United States. But without more sensible use of water, without investing in essentially water for peace, without investing in saving water in these cases we’re likely to have a lot of conflicts over water. And a lot of people in Africa who are unable to access the water because of the economics, because of the costs of getting it and these things have to be prevented if we want to avoid conflict over water.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: ... every spring of water, every mine of copper, every source of crude oil, these are blessings of our planet. If someone is near to some of them, then of course he/ she was very lucky. However this doesn’t automatically mean that heir that we get from the mother earth should be given to the first user. To correct this, the way the world works should be changed, which is a romantic idea without optimistic chances. Word is made of not happened events, impossible possibilities, unrealized goals.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: So, it’s no longer a commodity to be sold. It should be a natural right, a collective asset. Water is really the basis of our life. We’re like 97 percent water anyway. So, that’s the first thing. Second is we’ve got to create sound water policies and we need a global water effort. This has got to be agreed, because right now fresh water is being severely challenged through global warming. I mean just think about this. Producing a typical American car requires more than 50 times its weight in water. You think back to all the different processes that go into a make a car. A kilogram of hamburgers produced by a typical California beef-cattle operation uses some 20,500 liters of water. That’s 20,500 liters of water. Can you imagine? If current trends persist, per capita water supplies worldwide will drop by more than a third by the year 2050. The efforts to raise living standards for the additional 3.1 billion people alive then will create enormous strains on our natural water resources. So, think about it. A little more facts here; 18 of the 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East now qualifying as water scarce will double within 30 years. So, basically, we’ve got to do something about population control and there’s no short answer to this, but we have to reduce birthrate through comprehensive family planning, and equal opportunity of women is essential to secure water future. We’ve got to use bio-intensive technologies to end water-intensive methods of human waste disposal. In fact, I’ve got a great thing to show you here, something we’re creating in Willits, California which is waste water forests. This is a brand new technology where we use Redwood trees actually in the waste water stream, the effluent stream coming out of a community, and believe it or not the Redwood trees are able to take not only all the toxins in the effluent, but they’re able to literally transform that into nutrition. We do not need to use vast quantities of water to get rid of basically our “shit.” It’s not necessary [audio ends]

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Catherine David: ... countries that do not respect or do not sign the treaties and which is very active in different regions of the world where there are serious conflicts what the appropriation and the beneficial use of the natural resource water is concerned. Thus, I think that I do not have any other comments to add. Otherwise, this question is very funny. In French we would say that the hospital does not give a dam about charity.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: Answertext will be available soon.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: ... conflicts or war about the water supply cannot be ruled out in the future, as the politics is not distributing the water according to the needs of billions of people, but according to industrial use. And the water consumption of the industrialized nations is higher by far than the consumption of e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa which is a problem and will make water the cause for war. Nowadays we have the possibilities to get water, to have it cleaned by e.g. nuclear energy to achieve high drinking water quality. There is research in those fields in every nation. But huge companies make those patents their own because they scent big business. It is alarming that the supply with such a natural product as water, like the air we breathe, and which should be distributed democratically, nowadays is made the object of industries and companies.

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 2:45:00 PM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: I would like to – in answering this question, this is very one of the interesting question. Well, for me in order to have an access to water without conflict is to look at the source, recognize for the sources. And the next thing is we can look at is the consumption side, so that there has to be a sufficient supply of water for everybody so in order not to create conflict. So how are we going to maintain enough or sustainable source of water? One is look at the source. If the source is a watershed, then we have to care for it. We have to plan endemic or water produce increase within the watershed to sustain the source of the availability of water for everybody, and in that way we can respond to the needs of the growing population in terms of water supply and not creating conflict. Because simply, if we have high demand and less supply, of course, it will definitely lead to conflict. Another thing is that’s the reason why we have to see the sources and consumption is. In case water is used for business like dams, there should be a mechanism where the source of the water should be compensated in such a way. That’s what they call access and benefit sharing. While we want to use -- let’s say the dam will use the river to generate power, then in that way by using that water in order not to encounter conflict between those people who are living within the river and the one who is trying to make it as a business through dams, there has to be an agreement in sharing of benefits as I said between the - benefits that is being derived from the water. Water conflict can be minimized.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas