VOA常速英语2007年-ADB: Asian Governments Need to Improve Water Ma

By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
11 December 2007

The Asian Development Bank says that governments in the region need to improve the management of water resources to avoid a crisis in water security. Claudia Blume reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

The Asian Development Bank says rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization in the region - as well as climate change - will test the region's water management skills.

K.E. Seetharam, a senior water specialist at the ADB, says the major worry is not scarcity¹ of water, but water management.

Wastewater from cities is often discharged into rivers and lakes without being treated. Water supply is unreliable and does not always reach every citizen. A lot of water is lost through leakages².

Seetharam says most of the problems are due to poor management. In many places, water supply and waste management is not run as a professional business but as a free service of the municipality.

"It's basically a vicious cycle of low quality service, therefore low maintenance of facilities, therefore very low tariffs⁴ being paid, and so very low motivational staff," said Seetharam. "Very low motivated staff because they don't have funds and they don't get good assets to provide for. The services are so bad so people don't want to pay for it - so it goes back."

He says governments should set up transparent⁵ tariff³ systems. He believes the supply of drinking water and treatment of wastewater need to be run as commercial ventures that are accountable to its customers.

He says some cities in Asia have already made vast improvements, such as the Philippines' capital Manila.

"Ten years ago the city did not have proper water supply, only for a couple of hours a day, leakages were about 70 percent," said Seetharam. "And today, nearly half the city already has 24-hour water supply and their leakages is only about 20 percent. They are doing a brilliant job."

He says Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh is another success story. In the past four years, the city's water authority managed to drastically reduce the amount of water leakages, from 90 percent of the water supply to less than ten percent.

Experts are not worried that the region will run out of water in the future.

"Today we are in such an advanced stage that we could treat wastewater into potable water," he said. "We could treat seawater into potable water. So we have all the technologies available to take back water to clean water."

Seetharam says the key to improving access to clean water is changing the perception of many people in Asia that water should be available for free.

1 scarcity   

n.缺乏，不足，萧条

参考例句：

• The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
• The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。

2 leakages   

泄露； 漏( leakage的名词复数 )； 漏出； 漏出物； 渗漏物

参考例句：

• We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injection into it. 我们就可以看到，这个流量既有漏出的又有注入的。
• We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injections into it. 我们就可以看到，这个流量是既有漏出的又有注入的。

3 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

4 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

5 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。