Nestle chairman warns that water presents us with a global crisis
Peter
Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestle, says there is little recognition
in society of just how important water is for our social and economic
livelihood and how vulnerable we are from overuse.
Interestingly he also pointed out that new technologies across sectors is leading to increasing water usage.
Brabeck-Letmathe
said that not only has water been primarily responsible for people
living longer but also for extraordinary GDP growth.
In the past, with a population of 2.5bn, we did not even have to think about water but now we are using it unsustainably.
He
says: "In 2005 we were for the first time using water unsustainably and
for the first time today we are using non sustainable water. We are now
taking it away from the environment," which is leading to natural
disasters.
Brabeck-Letmathe said that in the future we will not
have the water to produce the energy we need, nor to produce the food
for an increasing population.
He says research of 154 water basins
does show there are solutions to balance sustainable water use with
economic growth and 240 different levers of change have been identified.
"There
are sufficient possibilities to bring water usage to balance," he says,
"but it needs political decisions and a better understanding of the
water supply.
"It is clear that if we are not tackling this issue,
which is not the next 100 years. This problem is of today. We are
already using too much water ."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/food-water-energy-resource-efficiency?newsfeed=true
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