Preparing for the Blue Revolution

Water shortages are cropping up around the world – from Australia to South Africa, from Brazil to the Sahel. Many of the world’s mightiest rivers run dry before reaching the sea. Perhaps half the world’s wetlands have been damaged or destroyed in the past century as salt water has displaced fresh water. These facts are striking, in view of the fact that the world’s population withdraws less than a tenth of the water that falls to the ground and that – unlike our fossil fuels – the world’s water supplies cannot be used up.

Although some regions suffer chronic water shortages whereas others are repeatedly flooded, water shortages are not merely a local problem to be solved locally. There are powerful world-wide forces at work that are making water a global problem. The first is climate change, which accelerates the rate at which water evaporates and falls and thereby increases our water management problems. The second is demography: in the last half century, the world’s population has grown by 2.5 billion, and it is expected to grow by another three billion in the next half century.

And the third is diet: as people around the world become wealthier, vegetarian diets are replaced by meat, requiring much more water input. To meet these challenges, we require more than local initiatives; what is called for is a “blue revolution.”

How can we reduce the flagrant waste of our water supplies? How can we discourage dry regions and countries from highly water-intensive agricultural products? How can we allocate water efficiently among our various uses – food, industry, services, personal use? How can we ensure that access to water is not inequitably distributed, amplifying the misery of the poor? What is the role of water pricing and sale of water rights in supporting a blue revolution? What role can business play in this revolution? How can the political obstacles to a reform of water management be overcome?