World supply of clean water at risk
By NICK GEVOCK,Chronicle Staff WriterThe lack of clean drinking water throughout the world and resulting disease could kill millions of people in coming decades, a Montana State University professor said Friday.
"Unless we're extremely careful, at least half the world is going to be facing a water shortage by the year 2050," Tim Ford, head of MSU's microbiology department, told more than 50 government officials, environmental advocates and journalists from around the globe who gathered in Bozeman.
Ford used a picture of a boy playing in a river in India that at times flows with raw sewage to illustrate his point.
Another picture depicted a city in Russia where the water system is treating 10 times the volume it was built to handle.
Drinking water polluted by human waste, heavy industry and other sources is the cause of 80 percent of infectious diseases, Ford said. And contaminated water causes 3 million deaths a year and 4 billion cases of intestinal diseases.
Ford's international audience came from more than 20 different countries and five continents, including Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Nigeria. They were in Bozeman for a conference organized by the Montana Center for International Visitors and the U.S. State Department.
But, Ford noted, the shortage of clean drinking water isn't a problem only in far-off, underdeveloped countries.
Throughout the world, including in the United States, aging municipal water systems are crumbling. Ford showed pictures of a century-old Boston water pipe caked with residue, which makes it a perfect host for disease-carrying bacteria.
To tackle the problem, communities throughout the world need better training for water system operators, improved public health monitoring and stronger enforcement of water standards.
Communities also need adequate wastewater treatment, Ford said.
"Your sewage becomes your drinking water," he said. "Everything is interrelated."
After Ford's talk, the participants broke into small groups, with local environmental advocates and officials leading discussions on issues ranging from mining reclamation to federal land management.
Despite the cultural differences, participants agreed that their environmental priorities are virtually identical: protecting clean air, water, wildlands and wildlife while trying to grow their economies.
Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger stopped by for lunch and talked about efforts by the Schweitzer administration to protect habitat and promote a cleaner environment, including a goal to produce 20 percent of Montana's power with wind energy.
Proper development of natural resources can be done without rampant pollution, he said.
"Industry has good technology, they just need to invest in them," he said.
Yunnus Arikan, Turkey's climate change consultant, said he was impressed with Bohlinger's goal of 20 percent wind power. Unlike water pollution, climate change caused by burning fossil fuels means one country can affect another across the world, he said.
"All our environmental efforts are shaped internationally," he said.