CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTSPopulation Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-4012, USA
September, 1998 |
Water Conservation and Management No matter how freshwater is used—whether for agriculture, industry, or municipalities—there is great potential for better conservation and management. Water is wasted nearly everywhere. Until actual scarcity hits, most countries and most people take access to freshwater for granted. "We have to stop living as if we had unlimited water supplies and start recognizing that we must deal with serious water constraints," Falkenmark and colleagues have warned. The relevant question about freshwater is not "how much water do we need and where do we get it?" Rather, it is "how much water is there and how can we best benefit from it?" That is, we must do better at managing the demand for water rather than continuing to focus on "supply-oriented" water management (64). On the demand side, a variety of economic, administrative, and community-based measures can help conserve water immediately. In the long run, slowing population growth will slow the increase in demand for water and help buy more time to develop better water conservation and management strategies (69). |