Worldwatch Says Eastern Drought May Mean Larger Threat

August 27, 1999

Worldwatch senior fellow Sandra Postel says this summer's drought in the Mid-Atlantic region foreshadows a larger water threat. A much larger, long-term water threat "is going virtually unnoticed even as it builds to staggering proportions."

If the drought conditions of summer persist into fall and winter, she notes, scientists say it could surpass in severity the droughts of 1929 and 1966. Maryland has had the driest growing season since record keeping began a century ago.

Droughts eventually end, but "a much larger, long-term water threat is going virtually unnoticed even as it builds to staggering proportions: water supplies are running short in several of the world's major food producing regions even as global food needs continue to increase, says Postel.

Water tables are declining from over-pumping of ground water in central and northern China, northwest India, parts of Pakistan, much of the United States, North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. Farmers in these regions are pumping ground water faster than nature is replenishing it.

The world's farmers "are racking up an annual water deficit of some 160 billion cubic meters -- the amount used to produce nearly 10% of the world's grain," says Postel. That cannot continue; eventually wells run dry or it becomes too expensive to pump from greater depths, she notes.

Her brief on the subject is available on the Internet at http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/990826.html