GLOBAL WATER CHALLENGE IN THE FRAMES OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

Introduction 4
I. The History of Sustainable Development 10
I. 1. The Club of Rome 13
1.2. United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 17
1.3. The Brundtland Commission 18
1.4. Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, 1992 20
1.5. Conclusion 23
II. Water Stress as a Global Problem 26
II. 1. Challenge: Critical water resources are unevenly distributed on the planet 31
11.2. Challenge: Climate Change 34
11.3. Challenge: The pollution and contamination of water resources 41
11.4. Challenge: The agriculture case to feed the growing population 48
11.5. Conclusion 54
III. Water: Emerging Innovations & Opportunities 58
III. 1. Renaissance of water pipelines 60
111.2. Virtual Water Trade System 70
111.3. Floodplain management 79
111.4. Conclusion 86
Conclusion 91
Bibliography 96
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Throughout history, great civilizations have always been concerned with how they could maintain their development and secure their resources. Sustainability played a central role in ancient civilizations as well, from Mesopotamia and Egypt, through to the River Valley of India to China. Later, however, the great geographical discoveries, colonization, and then the industrial revolution spread the pollution of the environment and the overuse of its resources to a global scale. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the effects of human activities reached a level where concerns for the environment swelled to a global scale, and it was impossible not to notice the common destiny and responsibility of mankind. Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, published in 1962, is perhaps the first to influence ecological thinking and catalyze the birth of environmental movements. The most important book of the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth, analyzed what would happen in the future up to 2100 of the world's population and the usage and degradation of the environment, while industrialization expands at such rate. At the international level, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 was the first to address the issue of the environment. The Brundtland Commission published its report Our Common Future in 1987. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was organized in 1992, with the participation of 172 countries, in Brasil, Rio de Janeiro. This conference wanted to get world leaders to agree that they are also legally committed to solving environmental problems. In recent decades, many international forums have been held to promote the implementation of sustainable development.
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the situation had already deteriorated to such a level that the most necessary natural resource for human survival, the water is in real danger. On the global level, from America to Africa through Asia to the Far East, freshwater stress is already present or will be present. Water stress has now become a global problem. Every aspect of our life has been profoundly impacted by the worldwide water problem. The biggest reasons, why we have such a high level of water stress globally: critical water resources are unevenly distributed on the planet, climate change, the pollution and contamination of water resources, and agriculture case to feed the growing population.
The earth's small fresh water supply is unevenly distributed across the planet. Some regions and countries have more rivers and lakes and get regular rain, while others are mostly desert and suffer years of drought. Nowadays, there are 195 nations in the globe. But in reality, just ten countries account for more than 60 percent of the world's freshwater supply. As a result of the uneven global distribution, 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which 733 million live in high and critically water-stressed countries.1 The growing demand for water in developing economies heightens concerns about scarcity. Freshwater consumption in developing countries has increased rapidly in recent decades. A large portion of the affected population resides in developing countries and close to two-thirds live in the BRICS countries. It will be a huge challenge for the future leading emerging BRICS economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, to sustain their economic growth.
The current climate change has a significant influence on our planet's fresh water supplies, because temperature and the hydrological cycle are inextricably linked. Climate change is already posing serious challenges to water in some regions on the planet: drought, flooding, heat waves, increase in temperature. Huge sacrifices are necessary for climate change mitigation measures, which have a substantial effect on global economic processes and, indirectly, on people's daily lives. It must be questioned whether it is worthwhile to spend significant resources on countermeasures to climate change when it would be better to use them for adaptation?
In our global world, water pollution is one of the main concerns of today's world, because many contaminants endanger the water supply as rubbish and chemicals enter rivers and lakes as a result of ongoing and irresponsible human activity. Especially underdeveloped and developing countries are exposed to this danger, because of limited infrastructure and poor water control, sewage frequently finds up in clean drinking water. World Health Organization estimates that worldwide some 2.2 million people die each year from diarrhoeal disease, 3.7 percent of all deaths, and at any one time over half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water-related diseases.
At the moment, agriculture uses the most water, making up around 70 percent of all withdrawals worldwide. Presently, agricultural water usage makes up a sizeable share of withdrawals in many developing and lower-income nations where food production makes up the majority of GDP. Many nations which are already under high water stress, because they uses their entire water resources for agriculture.
New possibilities are emerging globally as a result of the new innovation opportunities in the water industry. For instance, developing new market conditions, offering new transport methods, and researching new marketplaces. All of these creative projects have the power to change the economic and technical landscape. Despite these limitations, there are more and more possibilities for technologies that allow improved efficacy in current water infrastructure systems and solutions that turn wastewater into a resource.
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