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Soft Path continued front pa~e Z illegal hook-ups, and vandalism. In Focusing on large infrastructure projects to provide some countries, drinking water is even more freshwater for the Earth's growing population highly subsidized for those connected would cost an estimated $180 billion per year by 2025. The to the system, generally more affluent environmental and social costs of such projects would also people, while poor people not be extremely high. connected to the system rely on Fortunately, there are less damaging and less expensive private sellers or unsafe expensive ways to provide clean water to the developing sources. world. Rather than just providing massive amounts of To begin addressing the water, researchers instead suggest a "soft path" that will problem, the United Nations cause fewer environmental and social problems while still declared 2003 to be the providing the world with adequate fresh water.. This path International Year of , focuses on being as effective as possible with a minimum .- Freshwater and pledged ~~ amount of water using techniques such as rainwater to cut the number of ~ Death harvesting, integrated land-use plans, precision- people without clean `~ ~ toll y 2020 application. irrigation, and pricing tools to ensure . water or adequate sanitation in half by ~ ` .~~"~~~. ~ 1ladeq Uate water is not wasted. Not long ago, the use of vast amounts of 201.5. Unfortunate- ~~~~~~ ~® clean Water water and energy was equated with having a ly, there is little high quality of life. Fortunately, we've become indication that .'~~? d' $a {~ Itat(OI1 IS much more efficient at using water and that improving access to ~ e~ acted tO be p connection is no longer true. For example, the clean water is a United States now uses less total freshwater than `h 5 I I priority among etWeer~ 2 CYl I lO rl it did two decades ago.. wealthier nations. ~ ~ ~: ' 1 ~ ~ I71 I- I I I O rl Developed nations need to continue to According to an become more efficient, for our freshwater analysis by the Pacific people. resources in many areas are stretched to Institute for Studies in their limits. In the developing world, Development, Environment, following a soft path approach. could and Security published recently reduce the costs of delivering in the journal Science, aid from wealthy nations for clean freshwater by as much as 90 percent, water and sanitation projects in the developing world is bringing clean water and adequate drying up, not improving. In fact, it's declined from sanitation within the reach of US$3.4 billion per year in 1996 to $3 billion per year in millions more people. But that 2001. will only happen if adequate To make matters worse, the people suffering most - aid reaches the hands of those from lack of clean water and sanitation are receiving the who can use it most least amount of aid. Countries where only 60 percent of effectively. Anew the population has access to clean water receive just 12 international campaign- percent of international funding. Researchers say that called WASH -Water, ~ I I unless greater efforts are made, the cumulative death ~ ' O W I n Sanitation and Hygiene toll by 2020 from inadequate access to clean water ~ SO path for all -has been and sanitation is expected to be between 52 : ~ launched to mobilize a r~ a C l1 CO U I million and 118 million people -mostly children. ~ p political support Developed countries have tended to solve ~~~ ~~~ the COStS Of and action around their water problems through massive infrastructure projects like dams and canals. the world. d ~ I I ~O r I r~ g These projects delivered huge volumes of water ~reSh~a-ter by a$ but at a high cost. Large dams and reservoirs have For more ~ U ~ h a S 9O displaced tens of millions of people in the last . information, century and have done irreparable damage to please visit: - p~rCent freshwater ecosystems. Dams and irrigation schemes . www.pacinst.org or now remove so much water from some rivers that they _ www.unep.org can dry up before reaching the sea. The Colorado River, - for example, now rarely flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean. FACETS December 2003