Water and Life
“If we fail to act on the warning signs, there will be no need to ask for whom the bell tolls, it will be tolling for everyone, and we shall only have ourselves to blame.” Lord Puttnam
Although water may be abundant, this does not mean that clean water is always on tap when people need it. Climate change, conflicts, legal rights, and industrial pollution often prevent this essential resource from flowing freely.
A variety of IAS activities during this year engaged with the public and policy problems of water as it relates to human life, problems that are increasingly and unpredictably exacerbated by climate change.
A workshop on the global regulation of water, entitled Values, Costs and Environmental Stewardship: Who Pays, Whose Responsibility?, co-organised with Northumbrian Water, brought together 25 international experts to try to develop a new regulatory framework for water, one that could be applied to areas of the world that are undergoing radical change, suffering from poverty, or that are poorly governed. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals aim to halve the world population without access to clean water or sanitation; at present, this target will not be met by the poorest regions of the world. The position statement emerging from these discussions – entitled ‘The Water Needs of the World’s Poor Can Be Met if We Agree its Status as a Public Good’ – is available from the IAS website.
Also on the theme of legalising access to water, Shlomi Dinar used his Fellowship to analyse the effectiveness of existing freshwater treaties in an effort to suggest how they might be better written in the future to take care of this universal resource.
Although legal issues may have an effect on public access to water, it is vital that the public play their part in preserving water resources as well. This is especially important in a contemporary context where water is never isolated from global influences. In an era of climate change, water needs and resources shift according to widespread events; the broader population must work with politicians, and politicians must work across geographical boundaries, if we are to overcome the prevailing threat of our time. Lord David Puttnam, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Climate Change Bill Scrutiny Committee, gave a public lecture setting out the case for change. He urged individuals and leaders to adopt a new sense of collective responsibility with respect to water and environmental degradation.
A transcript of Lord Puttnam’s lecture is available at:
www.durham.ac.uk/ias/events/thematic/hungparliament
Reflections
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60