Isaac George
Mrs. Maisner
HWGC9th
11-06-2011

Times For The Future

In a world with an exploding population, resources are difficult to get to all the people who need them. One of the worst problems of this sort is the resource of fresh water. This is a necessity of life, and studies have shown that the bare minimum amount of water per day that one needs for basic drink and food is seven and a half liters. Many people have to do without water, while some others have enough to waste for swimming. So the big question is whose job is it to protect and regulate the ownership of water? I strongly believe that this should be dealt with by an international organization. This is shown by the difficulties of a government controlling its own water, some plans this organization might have, and the easily solved difficulties of an international organization.

I believe that it should be an international organization’s job to regulate water; one establishment that could do this is the United Nations. Many other people would suggest that it is a government’s job to regulate and protect water. This might not sound like a bad idea, but some governments might not be able to afford such a thing as a water policy. Also governments that already have policies, such as South Africa, may have flaws such as a low amount of water per person. Another reason the government controlling its separate water sources is the problem of shared watersheds, and what countries get what part of these areas. The reason this is highly debated is the fact that who ever gets the upstream end can tamper with the fresh water source and make it harmful for the other country or area. That is why I would ensue the route of an international lead of the water situation, so that it could set restrictions on things such as upstream water usage, and equally supplying water.

There are many things that an international organization could do to regulate and protect water. A way to regulate water would be to find areas that need water, and find the most efficient way to transport water to those areas. To make a start, the organization could make a simulation of this idea, showing the water availability in regions, and their economic standings. Then the organization could make a plan as to what would be more efficient for sending water to the regions in need with boat, plane, or land. The organization could also take another route, and effectively split up water boundaries giving all countries a clean none tampered water source. This would also include giving the technologies to correctly purify water for safe usage. This would be available for most countries, because drain age basins make up forty-seven percent of the earths land and that would mean almost every country has a water boundary. Those are some ways an organization could control fresh water resources, but there are a few possible difficulties.

A difficulty fort my first idea on transporting the water, would be who would pay for the transport? Well, in the same way the United States has taxes, this international organization would tax the countries. These aren’t large taxes, and would be in place to pay for jobs, and equipment used. Another problem would be wartime troubles affecting shipping. For this plan I believe that if countries start fighting they should not have water shipped to them, unless they pay the total costs of damages and delays. For the second part of the plan, a problem might be splitting the boundaries for equal use between countries. This problem has actually minimal solutions, but I believe with enough reasoning and maybe some bribery, the countries will agree with the boundaries. Overall major problems with these plans can be solved with a little critical thinking.

So I have given reasons as to who will protect and regulate water, how they will do it, and how some problems can be solved. The processes I have depicted won’t be quick, but they may be effective and provide a possible solution for water problems in the world. These ideas need some refining, but overall these points fix some problems in international water affairs. So I believe that if a ninth grader can make ideas like these, the future might be brighter than any of us believe.