Vision Statement of Freshwater Academy in Yokohama
The Freshwater Academy in Yokohama is an organization of citizens that
studies the international implications of freshwater usage in English.
Written by G. Tamaki, 
the co-ordinator of FWAY
Why is water so important?
Water is the source of life.
All living fauna and flora including human beings can’t exist without water.
Water is the source of foods.
It makes food production possible. Water produces such crops as rice and wheat with the help of the energy of the sun.
Through photosynthesis, plants take in fresh water containing nutrients, combine them with the carbon dioxide from the air, and produce carbohydrates which they retain in their bodies.
In the process, the plants generate oxygen which they release into the air. Plants help to clean the air and then become food for animals, including humanity.
Water is also one of clean electricity sources.
It theoretically generates around 200MW with the flow discharge of 50 m3 per second and the effective head of water height difference of 400 meters.
Is there enough total flow of fresh water for us?
Fresh water is circulating around our planet earth in many ways.
On the surface, fresh water is distributed as water, snow, and ice; in the atmosphere as cloud, fog, vapor, and rain; and underground as groundwater.
According to a scientist, water of rivers, swamps, and lakes circulates once every 16 days and vapor of atmosphere does so in 8 days.
Together, this produces a natural cycle that creates worldwide precipitation
of about 110 trillion m3/ year, while the evaporation is approximately 63 trillion m3 / year.
This difference of 47 trillion m3 between the volume of precipitation and evaporation is fresh water flow
that we can use ( except for the stock water in rivers, swamps, lakes,
and aquifers).
It is estimated that the world-wide total fresh water volume we need is approximately 68 trillion m3 / year.
Therefore, the fresh water volume should be enough for us.
Maldistributed water in the world
The volume of rainfall, just like wealth, is unevenly distributed around world.
People of countries in South, West, Central Asia, Arabian Peninsula, and Northern Africa, in particular in Middle East, have been suffering from fresh water scarcity.
For instance, it is estimated that annual drawing volume of water per capita
is 50 m3 / year in Qatar, 190 m3 / year in United Arab Emirates, and 260 m3 / year in Jordan respectively, including essential water volumes for domestic, agricultural, industrial, recreational and environmental uses.
It is said that the optimal level of annual fresh water withdrawal is 1,000
m3 / year per capita for people’s stable living and steady economic growth.
The minimum recommendation is 500 m3 / year per capita,
The data mentioned above indicates desperately low fresh water sources.
Dependence on water sources that
originate in other states can create conflict
There is a potential for conflict between countries which are currently
able to continue to draw water from mutually accessible sources. For example,
Egypt relies on the Blue and White Nile, which have ten upstream countries
for 97% of their water drawing. In Eastern Europe, Hungary depends upon
the Danube which has two upstream states (Germany and Austria) for 95%
of their water.
As a result, international conflict between party states can erupt over indispensable fresh water withdrawal.
For instance, we can’t forget the armed conflict between Israel and Arabian
countries over the Jordan, the discord between Egypt and Ethiopia over
the Blue Nile, the disunion of Hungary and Slovakia on the Danube, and
the conflict between India and Pakistan concerning the Indus.
The shade of Climate Change
We also have to consider an uncertain element that the climate change could affect regional precipitation.
Exempli gratia, we realize the fact that Australia has been plagued by the drought of the Murray-Darling river basin, which once produced 50% of Australian agricultural products.
Also in Georgia and adjacent several states, USA, there was the worst drought in 2007 since the 19th century.
A friend of mine in Atlanta, Georgia ever said to me, “If you invent the way to transfer Japan’s rainy season here, you’ll get the Nobel Prize”.
No exception on the fresh water issues even in Japan
In Japan, average water drawing per capita is approximately 1,300m3 / year, which is more than 1,000 m3 / year necessary to people’s stable living and economic growth.
Therefore we Japanese tend not to be sensitive and are even indifferent about global fresh water issues.
There are cases, however, that rainfalls are not enough, depending on the season and the region. For instance, it is said that precipitation of the Kanto area in the summer is equal to that of Egypt and Morocco.
As a result, during the summer season in the area, concerns about the water shortage are reported in the media.
It is also true to be scarce in the Sikoku area, in particular Kagawa prefecture and in northern Kyushu, especially in Fukuoka prefecture.
Japan is importing a huge amount of virtual water
Japan imports such tremendous quantity of foods as meat, grain, and vegetables from foreign countries. It needs a lot of water to breed livestock and cultivate grain and vegetables.
Therefore , importing a lot of foods means importing a huge amount of virtual water.
According to Daikan Oki, the professor of Tokyo University, the imported
Japan’s annual volume of foods is equal to that of the virtual water of
64 billion m3 / year. This is the volume of water that would be necessary to produce
the same volume of food in Japan.
As a matter of fact, as Japan has been importing enormous volume of virtual fresh water, it would not be forgiven for us Japanese to be indifferent and unconcerned about global fresh water issues.
Water control by transnational water corporations
Last, but not least, it has been pointed out by environmental activists, indigenous people groups, and some academics that transnational water corporations are going to rule and control global water market.
According to Canadian activist Ms. Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant, they have been encroaching on international institutions such as the World Bank, and even the UN and have begun to control many countries’ water projects.
A particular target has been in developing countries through “public-private partnership policies” of the institutions, ie, privatization of water projects and commodification of water”, which those institutions have been championing.
The institutions offer funding and loan for water projects to countries on the condition that countries adopt “public-private partnership”.
In return, big corporations obtain long term contracts with states or their municipalities on water projects.
As a result in the developing states, water rates have been soaring and clean water and sanitation have become exorbitantly “untouchable” for the poor who can’t pay.
This is a recent important phenomenon we can’t overlook.
How to meet the challenges of global fresh water issues
Facing these situations, we have to meet the following challenges;
1. Develop lower cost fresh water generation technologies by desalination
of sea water, better treatment of waste water, more extensive recycling,
creation of artificial clouds and underground storage.
2. Development of salt-resistant produce;
Crops those are strongly resistant to salty water or soil such as wheat, alfalfa, etc.
3. The cooperative use of transnational water resources among riparian
countries along international watercourses;
Understand the importance of “Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational
Uses of International Watercourses” adopted by the UN General Assembly
in May, 1997 prior to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol concerning Climate
Change. It is quite an important and significant international law in order
to prevent conflict among parties on the shared fresh water sources. We
have to do our best to ratify it, and make the convention into effect as
fast as possible.
4. Create and build means for public involvement in various fresh water
projects:
It is an indispensable factor if the fresh water-related projects are to be successful, that decision makers seek the input of civil society early in the process when the decision can be changed to reflect the divert perspectives of the citizens.
We have to form these political mechanisms.
5. Do not accept the rule and control of fresh water worldwide by transnational corporations;
We have to reconsider the so-called “public-private partnership” over the water projects in particular in developing countries and the commodification of fresh water as the tradable economical goods..
6. We consider the use of fresh water for all people as a fundamental human
right.
Our invitation to you
We launched the Fresh water Academy in Yokohama in May, 2002 in order to
understand global fresh water issues through meeting to read books, theses,
and essays written in English. Since then, we have steadily continued our
3 hour gathering once a week. For details, please refer to our profile.
We would like you to participate in our meeting.