Water woes

Last fall, island nations made a dramatic appeal to industrialized countries: "My country is on the verge of being submerged," Emanuel Mori, the president of Micronesia, told representatives of the European Union at the time. He demanded that western countries finally rethink their climate policies.

Island states like Micronesia have been hit particularly hard by global warming, primarily through rising sea levels. There are real fears that the country could disappear from the world map in the not-too-distant future.

The signs of the looming disaster are already there: rising sea levels have mixed salt water with the groundwater in several areas. That, in turn, is shrinking drinking water reserves and making it harder to irrigate agricultural land. The high level of salinity has poisoned the ground and made it infertile for years.

"It's a particularly tough situation for small island nations," Juergen Kropp of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research said. He added that these nations already had limited groundwater reserves.

Island states not the only ones affected

But it's not just places like Micronesia that are grappling with the problem of increasing salinity in the groundwater. Many other regions with long coastlines, for instance the Gaza Strip, are faced with similar problems.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most crowded places in the world, and that dense population puts great pressure on the region's water supply. Experts say it is another important cause of saline groundwater.

"Sea water can only intrude in places where water has been drained previously," Kropp said. If groundwater turns saline, he said, it shows that more groundwater was used than can be replaced.

Philip Magiera of the state-funded GTZ development organization in Germany said there are two ways to tackle the issue - either by increasing the existing water supply, or by limiting demand for it. "I'm a big fan of water efficiency," Magiera said.

There are lots of examples of how water usage can be reduced, he said, particularly in the agricultural sector. In many regions, up to 70 percent of the groundwater is used to irrigate fields. But with systems such as drip irrigation, it's possible to save large quantities of water.

Water wastage a major problem

Often, a lot of water is simply wasted on the way to the end consumer. Many countries struggle with leaky piping systems. In such cases, experts say, it makes more sense to first fix the leaks before more water is pumped into the system.

"Even in households, there are often possibilities to save water," Magiera said.

Effective use of water can also be achieved through economic measures such as regulating water prices.

If all water-saving measures are exhausted, then increasing fresh water reserves is the only option. If water cannot be imported, then the sea water must be desalinated.

"Technically, that's not a problem anymore today," said Kropp. Sea water desalination is practiced in countries such as Israel or Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates are almost entirely dependent on desalinated sea water.

But one of the problems that can crop up is that desalination plants are highly energy-intensive. And that energy is largely achieved in the Middle East by burning fossil-based fuel. That releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and in turn accelerates climate change.

Traditional solutions

Desalination plants have been set up in places like Micronesia. But these are mostly small plants with very low capacities. Bigger installations are too expensive. And there's a lack of energy reserves to power them.

Magiera said that in this case, the answer would be to turn to traditional measures - such as harvesting rainwater - instead of high-tech solutions.

Author: Philipp Bilsky (sp)
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn