World water crisis must be top UN priority: report
11 September 2012
Agence France Presse: WASHINGTON — A rapidly worsening water shortage threatens to destabilize the planet and should be a top priority for the UN Security Council and world leaders, a panel of experts said in a report.
The world's diminishing water supply carries serious security, development and social risks, and could adversely affect global health, energy stores and food supplies, said the report titled "The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue," published Monday.
The study was released by the InterAction Council (IAC), a group of 40 prominent former government leaders and heads of state, along with the United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and Canada's Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.
"As some of these nations are already politically unstable, such crises may have regional repercussions that extend well beyond their political boundaries," said Norway's former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, a member of the group.
The Norwegian leader underscored that the danger is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, western Asia and North Africa, where critical water shortages already exist.
Category: Water