The world water supply and demand situation is not optimistic. 1In May 1996, at the Third Committee on Natural Resources held in new york, the United Nations Department for Development Support and Management Services made a comprehensive analysis of the water resources of 153 countries (accounting for 98.93% of the world's population), and divided the countries in the world into four categories with indicators such as per capita water resources, per capita gross national economic output and per capita water consumption. That is, countries rich in water resources (including Djibouti and other countries 100), countries fragile in water resources (including the United States and other countries 17), countries short of water resources (including Morocco and other countries 17) and countries poor in water resources (including Algeria and other countries 19) (Pan At present, there are 53 countries and regions in the world (including: Spain, southern Italy, coastal areas of Dalmatia, Greece, Turkey, Arab countries (except Syria), most parts of Iran, Pakistan, western India, Japan, North Korea, Australia, western and southern New Zealand, coastal areas of northwest and southwest Africa, Panama, northern Mexico, central Chile and southwestern United States, and China. Current trends and forecasts show that by the beginning of the 20th century, water crisis will become a common problem in almost all arid and semi-arid countries. The World Water Resources Comprehensive Assessment Report published by the United Nations predicts that by 2025, the world population will increase to 8.3 billion, and the population living in water-deficient and water-deficient countries will increase from 300 million in 1990 to 3 billion in 2025. The latter is 10 times of the former, and the urban area of third world countries will also increase greatly. Unless the fresh water resources are used more effectively, the pollution of rivers and lakes is controlled, and the purified water is used more effectively, the population of the world13 will bear the pressure of moderate to high water shortage.

Professor Tibaijuka, Director of UN-HABITAT, said at the news seminar on water policy in Africa held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that UN-HABITAT was deeply worried about the deterioration of water use for African residents. He said that at present, more than half of the cities on the African continent are facing the problem of water shortage, and many poor urban residents are forced to pay high water prices to street vendors. The price per liter of water is usually 5-20 times that of urban water in developed countries. For example, residents living in the slums of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, earn less than 1 US dollar every day, but have to pay five times the same quality of water in the United States.

Professor Tibaijuka said that Africa is the region with the most tight water supply and the most backward public health facilities in the world. Today, more than one third (about 300 million) of African residents are short of water and have no public sanitation facilities. If effective measures are not taken, by 2020, 400 million African residents will lack safe water and 600 million people will have no sanitation facilities.

As a developing country, South Korea's water resources protection is still in the primary stage. At present, the main practices are as follows:

(1) Reuse properly treated wastewater as water supply for non-drinking water;

(2) Reduce the leakage in the system and room, and at the same time reduce the unaccounted water;

(c) Demonstration of non-governmental organizations to promote water-saving design.

Its future water-saving development strategy is

(a) Assessing the potential of water reuse for non-drinking purposes;

(two) to encourage industrial water-saving efforts;

(3) Changing the price policy to make it beneficial to water saving;

(four) to establish a series of water-saving equipment products;

(five) social means to promote public information and education;

(six) for some potential water-saving means, formulate a benefit-cost evaluation method including qualitative and quantitative factors.

People's Daily Online 165438+ 10/2 A survey on people's feelings about water released by the Cabinet Office of Japan on June 10 showed that two-thirds of the respondents answered "saving water" in their daily lives. Three quarters of people think that in order to make effective use of water resources, rainwater and treated reclaimed water can be used.

In this report, regarding the use of water, 64.9% of the respondents answered that they "pay great attention to saving water" or "have a certain awareness of saving water" in their daily lives. This is a slight increase compared with the survey of 64. 1% two years ago, but it is a big increase compared with the survey result of 15 years ago (5 1.2%). In the utilization of rainwater and miscellaneous water, 75% people actively agree to reuse it or think that it can be used if it is used to flush toilets. However, when asked whether it is acceptable to spend money on equipment for treating rainwater and miscellaneous water, only 35.5% people said it was acceptable.

As for the reasons for saving water, most interviewees (78. 1%) think that "water is a limited resource and should be cherished", followed by "if a large amount of water is used, it will increase household expenses" (43. 1%) and "if a large amount of water is used, it will pollute rivers" (22.8%). Compared with the survey seven years ago, the number of people with the above ideas has increased significantly.

It is reported that this survey was conducted in July and August this year for 3,000 male and female citizens over the age of 20. The questionnaire recovery rate was 70.4%. (Chen Jianjun)

(People's Network Japan Edition/Feed)