Contrary to popular belief, desertification is not the expansion of deserts. It is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas caused mostly by human activities and climactic variations.

One third of the world’s land surface is covered by dryland ecosystems. These areas are very fragile and react strongly to inappropriate land use.

More than 250 million people worldwide are affected by desertification. The real cause for alarm is that another one billion people are at risk, residing in over 100 countries.

Over 70 percent of the world’s drylands (excluding hyper-arid deserts) are degraded.

Not all consequences of the degradation of drylands are felt by those inhabiting the drylands themselves. Dust storms and air pollution are often a result of degraded drylands and negative impacts were felt at long distances in cases such as the Dust Bowl years in the United States, the Virgin Land scheme area of the former Soviet Union in the 1950s and in the African Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is estimated that the negative impact to annual incomes in areas directly affected by desertification is approximately USD$42 billion per year. And this number only takes into account the “direct” costs.

Information from:
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification website

Source: UNESCO Water Portal, June 2007

The leading causes of aquatic species decline and ecosystem degradation are physical alteration, habitat degradation and destruction, water withdrawal, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of non-native species.

It is rare that a species or habitat is endangered by a single threat and to determine the root cause is very difficult, if not impossible to determine, because of the complexity of the systems involved.

While only 12 percent of species find their habitat within coastal or freshwater ecosystems, nearly all terrestrial species depend on water for their survival. In addition, in Europe, 25 percent of birds and 11 percent of mammals use freshwater wetlands in order to breed and feed.

Studies regarding global aquatic biodiversity only began in earnest in the early 1990s and there are still relatively few global assessments that have taken place.

More freshwater ecosystem species are threatened with extinction than either terrestrial or marine species. In one study, it was found that, on average, about 50 percent of freshwater species populations fell between 1970 and 2000.

According to the IUCN, there are over 3,000 freshwater species that are listed as threatened, over 1,000 are fish and nearly 1,900 are amphibian.

For larger freshwater species, four out of the five river dolphins and two out of the tree species of manatees and 40 freshwater turtles are threatened.

Information from:
2nd United Nations World Water Development Report: “Water, a shared responsibility”

Source: UNESCO Water Portal, June 2007

Qanat (karez or foggara) irrigation systems are ancient (circa 800 BC) and consist of underground tunnels constructed into a cliff, scarp or base of a mountainous area, following an aquifer, or from rivers, to bring water out to the surface. The tunnels are straight and horizontal with a slope to allow the water to drain out into an oasis or irrigation system.

The volume of water produced by qanats depends on the type and extent of the aquifer, and its recharge rate. When tunnelling horizontally, air shafts 15-55 meters deep are constructed every 15-47 meters to remove the mined soil, clean the tunnels of silt, and aerate the tunnels.
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Every year over 2.8 million people die from AIDS.

Improved nutrition and food security reduces susceptibility to diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Improved water supply and sanitation reduces susceptibility to and severity of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases.

Safe access to drinking water and basic sanitation eases the pressure by other infections on the immune system of HIV/AIDS sufferers and allows for better health.

Interactions between epidemiological status and human vulnerability to subsequent stresses and shocks are well documented. For example, rural populations affected by HIV/AIDS are less able to cope with the stress of drought. Likewise, individuals living with chronic or terminal diseases are more vulnerable to emergency situations.

The section “Did You Know…?” is taken from the 2^nd United Nations World Water Development Report: “Water, a shared responsibility”.

Water is used by industry in a myriad of ways: for cleaning, heating and cooling; for generating steam; for transporting dissolved substances or particulates; as a raw material; as a solvent; and as a constituent part of the product itself (e.g. in the beverage industry).

The water withdrawals for industry are:

·         World: 22% of total water use.

·         High-income countries: 59% of total water use.

·         Low-income countries: 8% of total water use.

Industries based on organic raw materials are the most significant contributors to the organic pollutant load with the food sector being the most important polluter. The contribution of the food sector to the production of organic water pollutant is:

·         High income countries: 40%

·         Low-income countries: 54%

In developing countries, 70% of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply.

The annual water volume used by industry will rise from 752 km≥/year in 1995 to an estimated 1,170 km≥/year in 2025.

In 2025, the industrial component is expected to represent about 24% of total freshwater withdrawal.

Of major concern are the situations in which the industrial discharge is returned directly into the water cycle without adequate treatment. If the water is contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals or particulates, or loaded with organic matter, this obviously affects the quality of the receiving water body or aquifer. The toxicity levels and lack of oxygen in the water can damage or completely destroy the aquatic ecosystems downstream as well as lakes and dams, ultimately affecting riverine estuaries and marine coastal environments.

Past mining activities caused heavy arsenic contamination of groundwater and topsoil over 40 km≥ in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Thailand. A study commissioned by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2000 concluded that the contamination would last for the next 30 to 50 years. Testing of 1,000 samples showed arsenic contamination in some groundwater wells to be 50 to 100 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guideline value for drinking water (0.01 milligrams per litre).

In 1986 a fire destroyed a chemical store in Basel, Switzerland, near the borders of France and Germany. Chemicals reached the water in the Rhine River through the plant’s sewage system when huge amounts of water (10,000- 15,000 m3) were used to fight the fire. The store contained large quantities of 32 different chemicals, including insecticides and raw ingredients, and the water implications were identified through the presence of red dye in one of the substances, which turned the river red. The main wave of chemicals destroyed eels, fish and insects, as well as habitats for small animals on the riverbanks. The total eel population was destroyed for 500 kilometres downstream, from Basel in Switzerland down to Loreley in Germany. It took 3 months after the incident for the contaminant concentrations to drop to normal values.

Information from 2nd United Nations World Water Development Report ‘Water, a shared responsibility’, and from the ‘Water and Industry‘ facts and figures section of the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) website.