The world most valuable stuff

FREDERIC B. OUEDRAOGO

The world most valuable stuff


The economist
May 22, 2010

Short summary
In this article, the authors expose the causes of the world’s fresh water shortages and their consequences in the long term run. According to the authors the irreversibility of the phenomenon is due to the fact that the amount of water is fixed while the supply is increasingly exacerbated by an increase in the population growth rate. However, they point out four major alternatives that can help solving the problem. The most valuable solution suggested by the authors is to recycle the sea water, which constitutes a huge amount of available water and which because of its salinity is considered useless. The authors are convinced that this is the best solution, but they point out the cost related to those investments as one of the biggest challenges that can disturb or even handicap this effort.

Issues
1. Has the environmental aspect of sea water use been taken into account?
2. How can this technology be useful to poor countries?
3. How can this solution solve permanently the problem of fresh water shortages?

Your opinion
In my opinion, this solution is obviously not a durable one for two reasons. For one thing, this solution is not accessible to the whole world. Many countries which are in the situation of water stress have no access to the sea. Also, given the fact that the cost of that technology is high, we come to doubt that this solution is the best, because the majority of the countries which face water shortages are in the developing world. The second reason is that such a project will have harmful effects on the environment. In fact, such technology like the existing one for oil needs a huge plate form on the sea, pipelines, and other installations that can seriously generate damages to the environment.