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SINGAPORE: Access to water is increasingly seen as a potential
global flashpoint, Singapore’s prime minister said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the pace and
scale of urbanization has intensified the challenge of providing
safe, reliable and affordable water.
“More and more cities and countries see access
to water as a security concern and a potential trigger of
conflict,” Lee said in a speech opening a series of conferences
focused on sustainable development.
“Global warming can aggravate this by altering
existing water distribution patterns, intensifying droughts and
disrupting the lives of millions, as is happening in Darfur,” he
said, referring to the Sudanese region where conflict broke out five
years ago.
“However, scarcity of water is rarely the sole
problem. As a whole, the world is not short of water,” Lee told
the gathering of more than 5,000 people from around the world.
He said there is a shortage of clean, fresh
water where people need it, and lack of sound water management is a
large part of the problem.
“It is not enough to build the best water
treatment plants and then neglect to protect the water catchments
from squatters or pollution,” said Lee, adding technology and
research play vital roles in water management.
“There have been breakthroughs in water
technologies, more so than in clean energy,” Lee said, noting that
desalination, water reuse and other water purification techniques
have become significantly cheaper.
-- AFP
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