As the Red River chases folks from their homes ...

Others are facing a world of "Peak Water"

By Nastassja Hoffet
IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - As more than 20,000 people meet in Istanbul for a major week-long conference on future management of the world's water supplies, women's groups are working to ensure that policy decisions about this critical natural resource take their concerns into account.

About a billion people currently lack safe drinking water, and another two and a half billion have no access to sanitation.

Experts note that women and girls carry the burden of the water crisis since they bear more household responsibilities, such as hygiene, cooking, gathering water, and taking care of children and the sick.

Those tasks expose them to many risks, like contamination by water-related diseases and violence in conflict zones, and often prevent them from going to school or having a job.

According to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, in developing countries women and girls walk an average of six kilometres a day carrying 20 litres of water.

"When we use water faster than it is naturally recharged, it is not sustainable," said Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan research organisation based in California.

Unlike oil, water is not a non-renewable resource. However, it is limited by its location and flow. Many experts say the world has now reached "peak water" - meaning that available resources are eclipsed by massive, and growing, demand.

"In a few years, [the problem] will be exacerbated by climate change," Tracy Rackez, an expert on environmental issues at the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), told IPS. "We need to find ways to make women and men have equal access to clean water."

(More here.)