INTERNATIONAL RIVERSYMPOSIUM TACKLES WATER AND FOOD SECURITY

摘要

To the majority of city dwellers in the Lucky Country, our carefree love affair with water means little. It's clean to drink, cheap to use and fun to play in. While water still flows from the tap, we overlook the fact that our major river systems are being sucked dry or reducing their flows so that they become unhealthy. While city residents adapt to gradual water restrictions, we often ignore the devastating impact of drought, salinity, dams, sediment and pollution in our major rivers and estuaries. Internationally, the situation is far worse. Once-great rivers like the Yellow in China, the Ganges and Indus in India, and the Rio Grande on the border of Mexico and the United States now regularly dry up or clog up, with obvious consequences for aquatic species, water-based recreation, and human health and sanitation, especially for people who depend intimately upon their rivers for drinking, bathing, and cooking water.