Water – I/L – Latin America

Water – I/L – Latin America

With the most annual rainfall of any region in the world, the water crisis in Latin America is particularly perplexing. Latin American countries face many of the same problems as countries with chronic fresh water shortages. And less than 20 percent have access to adequate sanitation systems. So why do so many people lack access to clean water, when water abounds in the region? In 2006, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported the answer clearly: "The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, not in physical availability." And since Latin America has one of the most inequitable income distribution rates in the world, water access in the region is equally skewed. What's more, a 2006 World Bank study shows average water bills in Latin America are the highest of all regions in the developing world. Poor people bear the brunt of problems associated with water contamination and "scarcity." Additional studies have found the poor pay more for clean water, spend more time and effort collecting water, and are much more likely to suffer health problems from contaminated water. The UNDP report adds, "People suffering the most from the water and sanitation crisis -- poor people in general and poor women in particular -- often lack the political voice needed to assert their claims to water." Yet the water movements brewing in Latin America are beginning to make their collective political voice heard.

Water – Impact Helper – Escalation

Water crisis is coming soon: critical internal link to any future conflict.
Jacobson and Tropp 10 (Maria and Hakan, Programme Officer and Director at the UNDP Water Governance Facility, http://www.google.com/search ?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Maria+Jacobson+ %E2%80%A2+Ha%CB%9Akan+Tropp, accessed 6/7/11) CJQ

With the onset of climate change and a business as-usual approach, the world’s water crisis is bound to deepen as water is the primary medium through which climate change will have an impact on people’s livelihood, ecosystems and economies. In Africa alone by 2020, 75–250 million people are expected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change (World Water Development Report 2009). Climate changes are likely to be rapid and events of flooding and droughts are expected to become more intense and frequent in many parts of the world. Such changes would result in increasing risk and vulnerability to not only environmental sustainability but also economic growth and poverty reduction. For example, the Maldives, facing dire consequences of sea-level rise, are already considering buying land on the South Asia mainland as a coping mechanism to the risks of sea water destroying fresh water sources and eventually flooding great parts of the Islands. In addition to the rising demands for water due to climate change, overuse and pollution, poor governance (including corruption), population and economic growth and with that changing consumer preferences all contribute to the widening gap between available water and water demands. Water scarcity leads to economic losses, increased competition, social tension, conflict and more.

Water – Impact Helper – Escalation

Water wars ensure sustained instability and eventual nuclear retaliation.
Collins 11 (Terry, writer, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/ic-vil053111.php, accessed 7/7/11) CJQ

Saying that "international water leadership is virtually nonexistent," the retired leaders say the panel will work to elevate the issue's political prominence in an effort to avert a looming "water crisis." The 20 members of the InterAction Council attending this year's three-day annual meeting in Quebec City included former US President Bill Clinton, former Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, and former prime ministers Yasuo Fukuda (Japan) and Gro Brundtland (Norway). Co-chairing the meeting: former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, At the meeting's conclusion, the group urged a new international water ethic and offered today's political office-holders some 21 recommendations for world water management moving forward. The top recommendation: "placing water at the forefront of the global political agenda." Others include: link climate change research and adaptation programs to water issues, make the right to water legally enforceable, raise the price of water to reflect its economic value while making provisions for people in poverty, prefer the growth of food over biofuel crops in places where water supplies are threatened, and encourage the UN Security Council to take up water as an important focus. They welcomed both a high level of dialogue and cooperation on water-allocation in the Mekong River delta between China and India and the work done by the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund, which aims to rebuild housing in Haiti with adequate sanitation to avoid public health disasters through water contamination. In addition to the water crisis, the Council touched on other environmental topics, warning of the "intensification of natural phenomenon caused by climate change as demonstrated by floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes ravaging the globe." On other topics, the Council expressed deep condolences to the Japanese people who endured the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. They warned of potentially "prolonged instability" in North Africa and the Middle East and of inflationary dangers caused by escalating government debt loads. And they called on governments to eliminate nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the theme of the Council's 2010 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, saying "the continuing existence of nuclear weapons is an unacceptable and disproportionate threat to every living thing on the planet. The only enduring solution to this threat lies in the verifiable and irreversible elimination of these weapons." "As long as nuclear weapons exist in the hands of any state, they will be sought also by others. As long as nuclear weapons exist they will be used one day, either by deliberate action or by accident. Any use of nuclear weapons would be a human, ecological, economic, political and moral catastrophe. States continue to seek nuclear weapons for a number of reasons. The question of proliferation needs to be recognized and addressed."

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