RE: US wastewater8 Sep 2021 10:34
"Virtual Water"
Not heard of that phrase before.
The Intelligence Community’s attention to global water security is understandable. As the single most critical resource to public health, food supplies, and energy production, the scarcity of fresh water portends escalating international competition for its availability. A September 2020 study by the World Resources Institute recorded 2015 as the first year with more than 20 interstate conflicts over water resources; within three years, that number more than doubled.
Not surprisingly, nations that are more developed or geographically advantaged are leveraging this status over neighbors. China and Ethiopia, for example, are exerting control of upriver water supplies with massive dam projects that will heighten regional tensions. China is also taking advantage of its economic might to take “virtual water” from other nations by expanding Chinese-owned agricultural entities in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. This expansion uses the water of these countries to nourish crops that are then shipped to China for domestic consumption.
The stakes are high for nations facing real or potential water shortages, with greater likelihood of disease spread and stunted economic prospects. We can expect control of water resources to exacerbate geopolitical instability, territorial disputes, and, as water and food supplies dry up, massive population migrations. These developments are fraught with the potential to spark conflict and erode failing states, among other U.S. national security concerns.
Domestically, water vulnerabilities are becoming more pronounced. The February 2021 winter storm in Texas, resulting in frozen pipes and offline water treatment facilities, left millions of residents unable to access safe drinking water and indoor plumbing for several days, even weeks. The unprecedented temperature lows in Texas are an example of how extreme weather, hotter and colder, can have devastating effects on Americans’ water supply. Even under what we’d consider normal conditions, more than 2 million people in the U.S. struggle with reliable access to water for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene.
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