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Nature group warns against large scale river transfers
Nature group WWF has warned against "poorly assessed mega-transfers" of water between river basins.
A report by the German WWF examined existing and proposed large water transfer schemes in Spain, Australia, Lesotho and South Africa, Greece, Brazil, Peru and China. It found: "The history of inter basin transfers to date should be sufficient to sound very loud alarm bells for any government contemplating such a development".
Dave Tickner, head of freshwater for WWF-UK commented: "With the number of large water transfer schemes possibly nearly tripling by 2020 and the amount of water transferred expected to double, poorly assessed mega-transfers have the potential to inflict immense harm on both the communities donating the water and the communities receiving it."
He spelt out some of the potential issues: "You could face serious planning deadlocks, operational shortfalls, unforeseen economic and environmental disruption, and expensive follow-up works that will only partly remedy the damage."
He added: "If trends in water tables through climate change are not properly taken into account, the water planned for transfer might not be there any more in future."
Download: Interbasin water transfers and water scarcity in a changing world - a solution or a pipedream?
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