In Brief... Water Shortages Worsening
"One Billion Asians Could Be Parched in 24 Years, Say Experts" sounds like the title of a science-fiction novel. Actually, it's the title of an Agence France Presse report on a meeting of world experts on water supply who met recently in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Here are some highlights of the report:
Asia has the lowest per capita availability of water and, by the year 2025, nearly one billion people there will not have adequate access to water.
One-third of the world population is living in countries experiencing medium water stress.
It looks as though the bulk of the developing countries will spend the next 50 years struggling to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to their burgeoning urban populations and enough irrigation water to maintain high levels of food production needed to provide improving diets.
If all of the earth's water fit in a gallon jug, available fresh water would equal just over a tablespoon-about half of 1 percent of the total.
The supply crunch could also revive old-and introduce new-water-borne diseases and lead to micro-pollutants from pharmaceuticals such as synthetic hormones getting through existing treatment facilities.
International conflicts over water are likely to consume more and more of our time.
Even "relatively privileged" countries such as the United States and Canada are not going to be trouble-free over the next 50 years.
At the dawn of the 21st century, more than a billion people in the developing world lacked safe drinking water.
In a related report, scientists using pictures from a NASA satellite estimated that Lake Chad would be reduced to nothing more than a puddle in a few years. It has shrunk approximately 95 percent over the past four decades.
Once the fourth-largest body of water in Africa, it may not be able to continue to supply water to the countries it formerly bordered-Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. Sudan and the Central African Republic, which rely on rivers from the lake's drainage basin, may also face shortages. A steady drop in rainfall amounts has caused the shrinkage of the lake for nearly 40 years, accompanied by a commensurate increase in demand for water to irrigate crops.
Sources: AFP; Times Newspapers Ltd.
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: June 2001
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Darris McNeely
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
