From the headwaters to the sea: The critical need to protect freshwaters ecosystems

Environment

Volumn 47, Issue 10, 2005, Pages 8-21

  Postel, Sandra ^a,b,c  

^a Global Water Policy Project   (United States)

^b MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE   (United States)

^c WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DISASTER; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; FISH; FLOODING; FRESHWATER ENVIRONMENT; IRRIGATION (AGRICULTURE); PURIFICATION; REVIEW; WATER SUPPLY;

EID: 28544439820     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (68)

1. Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Restoration and Management, http://www.dnr.state.la.us/crm/coastalfacts.asp, accessed 31 August 2005.
2. Less than one-half of 1 percent of world water use comes from desalination.
3. D. Dudgeon, "Large-Scale Hydrological Changes in Tropical Asia: Prospects for Riverine Biodiversity," BioScience, September 2000, 793-806.
4. Twenty-four Nile rivers is the author's calculation based on population increase from medium variant estimates from United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision, http://esa .un.org/unpp, accessed 18 May 2005;
5. and the current global average dietary water requirement of 1,200 cubic meters per person is from M. Falkenmark and J. Rockström, Balancing Water for Humans and Nature: The New Approach in Ecohydrology (London: Earthscan, 2004). Dietary trends could significantly increase or decrease this average by 2030.
6. R. Hirji and H. O. Ibrekk, "Environmental and Water Resources Management," World Bank Environment Strategy Papers, No. 2 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001).
7. N. Dudley and S. Stolton, eds., Running Pure: The Importance of Forest Protected Areas to Drinking Water (Gland, Switzerland: The World Bank/World Wide Fund for Nature Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use, 2003), 40.
8. The description of the páramo is from Juan D. Quintero, Lead Environmental Specialist for Latin America and Caribbean Region, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department, World Bank, Washington, DC, personal communication with author, 27 May 2004.
9. S. Garland, "Keeping it Public in Bogotá," NACLA Report on the Americas, July-August 2004.
10. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Water Barons (Washington, DC: Public Integrity Books, 2003), 108.
11. Quintero, note 7 above.
12. W. V. Reid, "Capturing the Value of Ecosystem Services to Protect Biodiversity," in V. C. Hollowell, ed., Managing Human Dominated Ecosystems (St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2001).
13. Dudley and Stolton, note 6 above.
14. S. Postel and A. Vickers, "Boosting Water Productivity," in Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2004 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), 46-65.
15. Ibid.
16. A. Vickers, Handbook of Water Use and Conservation: Homes, Landscapes, Businesses, Industries, and Farms (Amherst, MA: WaterPlow Press, 2001).
17. Water demand data for 2004 are from Jonathan Yeo, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), e-mail to author, 18 January 2005.
18. MWRA Web site, at www.mwra.com/04water/ html/wsupdate.htm, accessed 28 February 2005.
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23. S. Postel, Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999).
24. World Commission on Dams (WCD), "Irrigation Options," WCD Thematic Review IV.2, as reported in WCD, Dams and Development (London: Earthscan, 2000).
25. Calculation based on withdrawal estimates in W. J. Cosgrove and F. R. Rijsberman, World Water Vision: Making Water Everybody's Business (London: Earthscan, 2000).
26. For a fuller discussion of options to improve irrigation water productivity, see Postel, note 22 above.
27. Postel and Vickers, note 13 above.
28. Postel and Vickers, note 13 above.
29. S. Verma, S. Tsephal, and T. Jose, "Pepsee Systems: Grassroots Innovation under Groundwater Stress," Water Policy, 6 (2004): 303-18.
30. Paul Polak, President, International Development Enterprises, personal communication with author, 28 December 2004.
31. L. C. Guerra et al., Producing More Rice with Less Water from Irrigated Systems (Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 1998), 11;
32. and R. Barker, Y. H. Li, and T. P. Tuong, eds., Water-Saving Irrigation for Rice, Proceedings of an International Workshop Held in Wuhan, China, 23-25 March 2001 (Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMI, 2001).
33. Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, The System of Rice Intensification, http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri (accessed 1 May 2005).
34. See also Association Tefy Saina Web site, http://www .tefysaina.org.
35. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), "Hunger Costs Millions of Lives and Billions of Dollars-FAO Hunger Report," press release, (Rome, 8 December 2004).
36. M. Falkenmark and J. Rockström, Balancing Water for Humans and Nature: The New Approach in Ecohydrology (London: Earthscan, 2004);
37. and G. Conway and G. Toenniessen, "Science for African Food Security," Science, 21 February 2003, 1187-88.
38. For a concise menu of water productivity options, see J. S. Wallace and P. J. Gregory, "Water Resources and their Use in Food Production Systems," Aquatic Sciences 64 (2002): 363-75.
39. J. Rockström, "Water for Food and Nature in Drought-Prone Tropics: Vapour Shift in Rain-fed Agriculture," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 358 (2003): 1997-2009.
40. Ibid.
41. Dietary water requirements from D. Renault and W. W. Wallender, "Nutritional Water Productivity and Diets," Agricultural Water Management 45 (2000): 275-96.
42. The medium variant U.S. population projection for 2025 is 350 million, according to United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision, http://esa.un.org/unpp (accessed 18 May 2005).
43. The 200 million figure assumes an annual average dietary water requirement of 1,242 cubic meters per person, derived by reducing current annual U.S. dietary water use of 1,971 cubic meters per person (see Renault and Wallender,World Population Prospects: ibid.) by 37 percent, the estimated per person water savings resulting from a halving of animal product intake.
44. An estimated 3,300 and 1,500 Haitians were lost in the storms in May and September, respectively, according to L. C. Hallman, "Death Toll in Haiti Continues to Rise," news release (Washington, DC, American Red Cross, 28 September 2004).
45. D. Sontag and L. Polgreen, "Storm-Battered Haiti's Endless Crises Deepen," New York Times, 16 October 2004.
46. T. Mitchell Aide and H. Ricardo Grau, "Olobalization, Migration, and Latin American Ecosystems," Science, 24 September 2004, 1915-16; and Hallman, note 39 above, which reports that seven died from the September event in Puerto Rico.
47. The statistic of 273,000 casualties is from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "Asia: Earthquake and Tsunamis," Fact Sheet No. 8 (Geneva, 24 March 2005). For Indonesia and India, the number of dead includes those listed as missing.
48. Munich Re Group, Annual Review: Natural Catastrophes 2004 (Munich: Munich Re Group, December 2004).
49. European Commission, "Flood Protection: Commission Proposes Concerted EU Action," press release (Brassels, 12 July 2004).
50. K. F. Schmidt, "A True-Blue Vision for the Danube," Science, 16 November 2001, 1444-47.
51. World Wide Fund for Nature, Living Waters Program-Europe, "A Green Corridor for the Danube," as described in S. Postel and B. Richter, Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (Washington DC: Island Press, 2003).
52. Schmidt, note 45 above.
53. J. N. Abramovitz, Unnatural Disasters (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2001).
54. See also M. F. Myers and G. F. White, "The Challenge of the Mississippi Flood," Environment, December 1993, 6-9, 25-35.
55. E. Rykiel, "Ecosystem Science for the Twenty-First Century," BioScience, October 1997, 705-08.
56. The $19 billion cost estimate is from Abramovitz, E. Rykiel, BioScience, ibid.
57. National Research Council, Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making (Washington DC: The National Academy Press, 2004), 170.
58. J. T. Houghton et al., eds., Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
59. South African National Water Act No. 36 of 1998, Part 3: "The Reserve," and Appendix 1: "Fundamental Principles and Objectives for a New Water Law in South Africa," Government Gazette 398, No. 19182 (Cape Town: 26 August 1998).
60. International Conference on Freshwater, "Water-A Key to Sustainable Development: Recommendations for Action," Bonn, Germany, 3-7 December 2001.
61. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005).
62. S. Postel and B. Richter, Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (Washington DC: Island Press, 2003).
63. D. J. Blackmore, "The Murray-Darling Basin Cap on Diversions-Policy and Practice for the New Millennium," National Water, 15-16 June 1999, 1-12.
64. The study of the Murray-Darling basin economy is cited in Blackmore, D. J. Blackmore, National Water, ibid.
65. The argument for a more stringent cap is from J. Whittington et al., "Ecological Sustainability of Rivers of the Murray-Darling," in Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council (MDBC) Review of the Operation of the Cap (Canberra, ACT: MDBC, 2000); and author's communication with scientists at Riversymposium 2001, Brisbane, Australia, 27-31 August 2001. The focus of the Living Murray program initially is on six specific ecological assets, as described in MDBC, "Implementing the Living Murray, http://thelivingmurray. mdbc.gov .au/implementing (accessed 11 April 2005).
66. D. Wnittington, "Municipal Water Pricing and Tariff Design: A Reform Agenda for South Asia," Water Policy 5, no. 1 (2003): 61-76.
67. See also S. M. Olmstead, "What's Price Got to Do with It?" Environment, December 2003, 22-35.
68. R. W. Wahl, "United States," in A. Dinar and A. Subramanian, eds., Water Pricing Experiences: An International Perspective (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997).