The amount of water used to produce food and goods imported to developed countries is worsening water shortages in the developing world, a report says. The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside its borders. The Engineering the Future alliance of professional engineering bodies says this is unsustainable, given population growth and climate change. It says countries such as the UK must help poorer nations curb water use.
一份报告称，生产出口到发达国家的食品与商品所用的水正在加剧发展中国家的用水危机。这份报告主要关注英国，报告称，英国进口商品所使用的水有2/3来自国外。由专业工程师协会组成的工程与未来联合会表示，鉴于人口增长和气候变化，以上做法是不可持续的。它表示，英国等国必须帮助相对贫穷的国家减少用水量。
'We must take account of how our water footprint is impacting on the rest of the world,' said Professor Roger Falconer, director of the Hydro-Environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University and a member of the report's steering committee. 'If we are to prevent the 'perfect storm', urgent action is necessary.' The term perfect storm was used last year by the UK government's chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, to describe future shortages of energy, food and water.
“我们必须考虑我们的水足迹是在如何影响世界其他地区的，”卡迪夫大学水环境研究中心主任、报告执行委员会委员罗格?法尔科内说。“如果我们要避免‘绝对风暴’，就必须立刻采取行动。”英国政府首席科学家约翰?白丁顿去年使用了“绝对风暴”一词，指未来的能源、食品和用水危机。
Forecasts suggest that when the world's population soars beyond 8bn in 20 years time, the global demand for food and energy will jump by 50%, with the need for fresh water rising by 30%. But developing countries are already using significant proportions of their water to grow food and produce goods for consumption in the West, the report says. Key to the report is the concept of 'embedded water' - the water used to grow food and make things. The average UK consumer uses about 150 litres per day, the size of a large bath. Ten times as much is embedded in the British-made goods bought by the average UK consumer; but that represents only about one-third of the total water embedded in all the average consumer's food and goods, with the remainder coming from imports.
据估计，世界人口将在20年内超过80亿，届时全球对食品和能源的需要将增加50%，对净水的需求将增加30%。然而报告称，在发展中国家，很大一部分的水都用于种植和生产出口给西方的食品与商品。报告中的关键是“内含水”这一概念，即种植食品和生产商品所用的水。英国消费者平均每天使用约150升水，体积相当于一个大浴缸的大小，而英国消费者购买的国货用水量是这个的10倍。但由于其他商品来自进口，国货用水只占消费者平均每天购买食品与商品所用水总量的1/3。 |