Progress can't always be measured in pipelines.

• Author: Acosta, Yvonne
• Position: Water shortage as a global problem

'Water is not just a technical fix'

Water scarcity - a situation where water demand exceeds available supplies - looms large in many parts of the world, increasing the likelihood of both conflict and poverty in these regions. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) water programme has combined scientific expertise, culturally specific applications and common-sense strategies to address this pressing issue.

One idea is to install a new pricing structure for water. Most Governments-developed and developing alike-subsidize water because it is considered to be a public good. But water's true costs, including transportation, purification and distribution, remained hidden from citizens.

Experts at a UNESCO-sponsored International Conference on Water and Sustainable Development in 1998 have suggested a two-tier ed pricing system, which would create incentives for farmers and people to be more frugal about their consumption. Prices would vary with usage category, so that water for basics like drinking would remain cheap and available, but water for non-essentials, such as lawn sprinklers and car washes, would be sold at a premium.

Another tact is to implement the "polluter pays" principle making upstream farmers/countries responsible for the quality of water downstream - on a large scale. Upstream/downstream situations between nations, such as those in Central Asia, are common throughout the world; over 300 countries depend on waters drawn from the same source as their neighbours. Mr. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Head of the Division of Water Sciences at UNESCO, talks of a new "Water ethic", which occurs "the moment you face a problem of sharing". In riparian river basins, "you have a finite resource with a number of players. The upstream country says this is my water - the Creator has given all the water which is in my territory and I do with that whatever I want to". Those who are downstream say. "Yes, Mother Nature has given us that water - your guys are stealing. If you use it, fine. If you put it back in the same way as you have had it, fine."

After 26 years of negotiations, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 1997 on transboundary water courses. Mr. Szollosi-Nagy calls this "a major breakthrough because now it is a legal document. It says that riparian countries should cooperate in an equitable manner. ... Nobody has the right alone to use the resources in the territory of that country...