Time For Europe To Tackle Looming Water Crisis
Pastor Dale Morgan
Time For Europe To Tackle Looming Water Crisis*
Paris (AFP) Feb 15, 2007
European countries must start planning now to cope with climate change,
as shifting rain- and snowfall patterns will inflict water stress whose
effects will ripple across the social and economic spectrum, the
European Environment Agency (EEA) warned on Wednesday. "Changes in
precipitation, combined with rising temperatures and reduced snow cover,
will have impacts on water quality and quantity, requiring water
managers to incorporate climate change in their planning and investment
decisions," the EEA said.
"While uncertainties remain about the level and extent of changes in
precipitation in specific locations, enough is known for action."
The new EEA report, Climate Change and Water Adaptation Issues, draws on
the latest research on global warming, including the just-published
first volume of a global assessment by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC said that by 2100 global average surface temperatures could
rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 C (1.98 and 11.52 F) depending on how much
carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, is in the air.
Within this range, the "best estimate" is Earth's surface temperatures
will rise between 1.8 and 4.0 C (3.2 and 7.2 F), the IPCC said. Sea
levels would increase by 18 to 59 centimetres (7.1 to 23.2 inches) by 2100.
The EEA said that in Europe, the temperature would rise by between 2.0
(3.6 F) and 6.2 C (11.16 F), with a mean increase of 2.1-4.4 C (3.8-7.9
F). Larger increases could be expected in eastern and southern Europe.
This would affect every country, it said.
"We in Europe need to get our act together on adaptation (to climate
change) in the same way that we are leading on mitigation," said EAA
Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade. Mitigation is the term for
tackling the man-made greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
These are among the potential impacts, according to the EAA report:
-- Annual precipitation in northern Europe is likely to rise by as much
as two percent per decade, although summers will be drier. But in
southern Europe, there will be a fall in annual precipitation,
especially in summer when rainfall will decrease by around five percent.
-- Flooding will become a more frequent risk over all of Europe.
Northern Europe will run a higher risk of drought in the summer;
southern Europe faces the risk of more droughts in all seasons.
-- Climate change will strongly affect natural habitat and biodiversity.
For example, loss of groundwater may badly affect dunes and wetlands in
the Netherlands; streams and lakes in Austria that are fed by glacial
meltwater could dry up; and new diseases, pests and species that thrive
in an altered climate could threaten native species in Britain.
-- Water supplies for human consumption will also come under severe
challenge, because at present, reservoirs and use of groundwater stocks
are designed for a long recharge season.
If the recharge season is short, or it provides so much rain in one go
that the ground surface saturates and the water cannot infiltrate, this
will badly add to stress. Southern Spain, southern Italy, Greece and
Turkey are singled out.
The report adds that the cost of these impacts could be very high.
Less rainfall will affect which crops can be grown and the availability
of water for coastland tourist resorts and golf courses. It could also
lead to worse quality of drinking water. And lower water levels in
rivers and waterways will also affect electricity generation by
hydropower and impede navigation.
Droughts alone have cost 85 billion euros (110 billion dollars) over the
past 30 years in the European Union (EU), led by 2003, a year that cost
7.5 billion euros (9.75 billion dollars) alone.
Source: Agence France-Presse