Water shortage can cause global conflict, warns UN
By IANSTuesday, March 23, 2010
UNITED NATIONS - Increasing demand for water and shortage of the resource across the world can become a potential source of conflict, the United Nations has warned.
The increased demand for clean water and the fall in supply sources cause a scramble increasingly evident. Border waters can become a cause of potential conflict when dealing with a survival problem, said Ali Treki, chairman of the UN General Assembly.
However, he said water resource will also allow the practice of cooperation, in particular to promote the use and the sustainable and equitable management of border waters of rivers and lakes, Prensa Latina reported.
Speaking at the inauguration of an interactive debate on the shortage of water and its impact Monday, Treki underlined the need for clean water to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which include poverty reduction, health and sustainable development.
These goals are threatened when one in every six people do not have access to safe water, other 2.5 billion are without basic health services and thousands of children die every day from waterborne diseases, he said.
