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The Forum > Article Comments > Water scarcity: a threat to global food supply > Comments

Water scarcity: a threat to global food supply : Comments

By Mark Rosegrant, published 17/8/2006

Water is not like oil - there is no substitute. If we continue to take it for granted, much of the Earth will run short of water or food - or both.

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Mark Rosegrant:

In spite of your ' doom and gloom ' prognosis regarding the future of Planet Earth, it's refreshing to know some people here have a social conscience, and apart from preaching enviornmental issues - at least try to be informative.

For years I've been writing about the mindset of our fearless Leaders who over past generations have taken Professor Donald Horne's " My Lucky Country " literally and instead of implementing positives to improve our lot, have squandered precious time and resources, to the detriment of our Nation.

Successive Government's in every State, have opted for expedient ' easy ' solutions - in everything from Health, Crime, Foward Planning.. to water, for which we are now seeing the painful effects, being played out.

In Qld, the Govt has not only abrogated their Duty of Care to their constituents, they have been willfully negligent and deceitful. For years, they have spawned their propaganda to the deluded hoi polloi about their ' achievements ' - only to discover albeit, fiasco's ranging from the Dr Patel's scandal, Wivenhoe Dam's 30 % capacity, CBD's unfretted crime wave. Dire shortages for emergency Hospital beds and long queue's for life threatening Operations - the list is endless. Now, it's advocating plans for recycling excrement for drinking, cooking and showering ?

MR, you don't have to worry about Third World Communitie's running out of Water, ever again.The solution is so fundamentally simple.

We spend Millions on developing the Tourist Trade - urging wealthy Asian's, Mid-Eastern Sheik's, and North American's to ' bloody visit us Down-under ". The reality: who would spend a plugged nickel in the ' sunshine state ' luxuriating in the 6 Star Palazzo Versace, or Q1 Resort, wining and dining in ' poo water ' ??

Redicule aside, the last Dam built in Qld was in 1990. Lake Dyer, in Gatton. It is a monumnent to Nepotism and Cynicism. It has been bone dry since it's inception. It is a barren saltpan - thanks to Politician's who over-ruled the experts from the Dept of Natural Resources. Traveston Dam will be the paradigm
Posted by dalma, Monday, 21 August 2006 2:14:54 PM
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to Beattie's alter-ego.

Ironically, the Weatherman and Social Scientist's have been predicting the Food and Water malaise for decades. The Draught has been Aust's Paradox ever since settlement. Dorothy McKellar's reference to the ' sunburnt Country ' is as true today as it was in her time. Generation's of Farmer's and Grazier's have suffered climatic vicissitudes as their ' career-burden . The Bureaucrats ensconced in Canberra write tomes on Al Queda, Hezbollah, and the sex-life of the Vole, yet pressing issues are relegated to..??
It's a pathological virology endemic to the ACT. Must be the unfiltered water from Burleigh Griffith.

We have become blase about the necessities of Life. For too long, abused Mother Nature in our hedonistic pursuit of the ' good-life '. Climatic change, global warming, ozone layer. Fossilised fuels, food chain,GI crops, salinity, myriad social disparities have overnight become chi-chi.

The challenge's that beset the Third World is nothing new. Famine,disease,hunger, poverty etc have permeated since the dawn of Time.

Most Developing Nation's are catching up with the rest of the World. They will have to evolve the pandemic of 'civilised culture' - obesity, fast-foods, estasy,binge-drinking, wife-bashing, single-parenting, credit-card debt, identity fraud - the litany reads like the foibles of Alice in Neverland, except for it's gravity.

TWC have got their priorities by the short and curlies. Instead of vital infrastructure in Water, Electricity, transport, manufacturing, research..they are investing in Defence mechanisms. The Arm's sale world-wide is escalating like no other.The US, UK, France and Russia are at the forefront selling surpluses to TWC.They have a voracious appetite for the latest Missile, Fighter a/c, tank or Katusha rocket etc.

The emphasis today is to appear with a Big Stick, and in some Asian Communities it is a face-saving-device. " Better to starve today than beg tomorrow ". Confucius.

Quote: " increase competition for water will severly limit availability.." would have no impact here or abroad. The presumption we are usurping water from elsewhere is absurd. The defining moment is HOW we judiciously manipulate this finite element. Judging from past experience, it's been a disaster

Bon Appetit !
Posted by dalma, Monday, 21 August 2006 2:50:31 PM
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I notice that no one has commented on "virtual water" which is the water embodied in food, fibre and meat etc as a result of the animals and plants consuming water and the water used in preparing their feeds and cleaning milking sheds.
The muliples are massive a single tonne of meat typically embodies about 16000 tonnes of virtual water. So when New Zealand farmers export meat to Saudi Arabia and other water short countries New Zealand is actually exporting thousands of tonnes of virtual water.
As a matter of interst New Zealand's exports of virtual water match quite closely Hong Kong's imports of virtual water. New Zealand's net virtual trade is some 19,500,000,000 tonnes of virtual water every year.
So one key to the crisis facing water short countries is free trade which enables water rich countries like New Zealand to export virtual water to those who are short of it.
Posted by Owen, Tuesday, 22 August 2006 11:08:22 AM
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