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To all Hydrogeologists and Hydrologists, wherever you are…

By Yoram Eckstein posted 03-24-2014 05:41

  

Water International, 2014, Vol. 39, No. 2, have just published in a special issue titled: “Towards Equitable Water Governance.” In it, an astounding viewpoint article appears under the heading: “Santa Cruz Declaration on the Global Water Crisis.” (p. 246–261, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2014.886936)

The Declaration is an outcome of a February 2014 workshop organized by the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Declaration opens with a stunning statement:

“At least one billion people around the world struggle with insufficient access to water. However, the global water crisis is not, as some suggest, primarily driven by water scarcity. Although limited water supply and inadequate institutions are indeed part of the problem, we assert that the global water crisis is fundamentally one of injustice and inequality. This declaration expresses our understanding of water injustice and how it can be addressed.”

An additional statement sheds some light on the “occupational” background of the framers of the Declaration. Initially, the statement was offered in the following terms: “We, the undersigned scholars, community members, activists, officials and citizens, declare that the principal form of the water crisis is not a shortage of water, nor failures of government, but the many injustices in access to, the allocation of, and the quality of water. The global water crisis is not likely to be resolved by the provision of more water.” But, in the last moment, the guest-editor of the Special Issue replaced that statement with something more nebulous and innocuous: “The undersigned endorse the principles of the declaration as it appears above.” Making that substitution hides the fact that many of the signers of the Declaration are not quite scientists, but so to speak, agenda driven activists and politicians who hold explicit political positions on this matter.

To “prove” their point that the water shortage is one of injustice and inequality, the “scholars, community members, activists, officials and citizens” note, among other things that “for instance, in California’s Central Valley, running from Sacramento to Bakersfield, residents in low-income communities pay high prices for contaminated water for domestic and garden uses, and then have to buy bottled water to drink. Clean water from the Sacramento Delta travels in canals, bypassing these communities, for the benefit particularly of large-scale agriculture in Southern California.” Notably, they neglect to mention the on-going severe drought, one of the worst on record, which is affecting water resources indiscriminately throughout the entire State of California. Remarkable! Drought? No big deal for sure. …

I was among the very few privileged to be invited by the Special Issue’s guest-editor to offer a comment on the Declaration, to be included within the very same issue. Unfortunately, I was joined only by Dr. Malin Falkenmark of the Stockholm International Water Institute in voicing criticism (she did it in a more “diplomatic” and more settled way, as Swedes always do). Only the two of us recognized the fallacies in the Declaration’s argument that “the global water crisis is not, as some suggest, primarily driven by water scarcity.” Only the two of us noticed that its framers offer no supporting scientific data for the Declaration’s argument. Only the two of us, finally, pointed out that an agenda-driven perspective renders the Declaration’s arguments null and void. Instead, all other commenters offered resounding accolades which reminded me of the politically-correct scripts (that are so much now in fashion) with which I became so familiar growing up on the wrong side of the “iron curtain.” What a travesty (and how ironic) to call this opinion piece a Declaration as if it to draw a parallel with The Declaration of Independence which so eloquently and justly argued for its universal principles.

Please, log-on or look up for the Water International 2014, Vol. 39, No. 2 in your library and read the “Declaration” and then send your opinion/reaction to Water International Editor-in-Chief Dr. James Nickum at iwrapubs@gmail.com or Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dr. Philippus Wester at iwrawin@gmail.com

 

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