Monday, May 17, 2010

Water Crisis triggers Food Crisis !



Water is the base of Life. Without water, there is no life !

Of the available scarce water resources, 70% go to Agriculture, 20% to Industry and 10 % to households.

If water is scarce, it will have its impact on irrigation. There will be less production of foodgrains, vegetables and fruits and the prices of these commodities will shoot up. ( The Govt consoled the people saying that food inflation is only 17%). This is exactly what we are witnessing today.

For instance, the prices of vegetables, fruits and foodgrains have more or less doubled in the last two years. Same is also true of fish and meat.

Less water means the prices of industrial products will shoot up. Hence the inflation. For households, water companies will hike their prices. Which is again what we are witnessing today.

The villain of the piece is overpopulation. Overpopulation strains the ecosystems and burdens social systems. More demand for water and for food. Supply is less. We have come to a stage where people fight for a loaf of bread or a bucket of water !

The hydrological engineer, Michael Kravalik, and his team of scientists ( at the Slovakia Govt NGO People & Water ) give a great warning. The places dried of water are called hot stains and Earth’s hot stains are increasing. If the Earth dries out, as is happening now, it will cause Global Warming, decreased protection from the atmosphere, decreased biodiversity, melting of the polar ice caps, increased solar radiation, massive continental desertification and eventually global collapse.