Healthy ecosystems, healthy people

Apr 27, 2011

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Sarah Davidson
International Freshwater Policy Advisor, TNC

Local farmer and ecotourism guide, Pablito Vergel, drinks from a mountain stream in Colombia.

Last week, I spent Earth Day the same way I do every year: thinking about water. That famous “Blue Marble” picture of Earth from space taken back in 1972 made it clear that we are living on a blue planet. But less than 1 percent of the water on our planet is available freshwater. With scientists predicting that by 2025, more than two-thirds of the world's population could face water shortages -- and half the world's hospital beds already occupied by people suffering from water-borne diseases -- water is such a clear example of how connected we are to nature: we depend on it for our very lives.

Too often, keeping the environment healthy is thought to be a separate issue from making sure all people have safe, clean drinking water and good sanitation. In fact, they're inseparable issues.


Children from the Goba tribe in Zambia, near the Lower Zambezi National Park.

 At least a third of the world's largest cities obtain a significant portion of their drinking water directly from forested protected areas. This isn't a coincidence: forests and wetlands play a vital role in filtering water to sustain its quality. These ecosystems also regulate when that water is available, reducing flooding and keeping water more abundant during dry periods. In fact, forested wetlands treat more wastewater per unit of energy and have up to 22 fold higher cost-benefit ratios than traditional sand filtration in treatment plants. (See UNEP's Dead Planet, Living Planet.)

 That's why at TNC we talk about healthy ecosystems as natural infrastructure. Through projects like our Water Funds in cities including Bogotá, Colombia, and São Paulo, Brazil, we are working to protect this infrastructure, which is particularly important for the poorest populations who are least likely to benefit from built infrastructure like reservoirs and treatment plants.

Unfortunately,  as people build scores of new dams, extract water faster than it can be replenished, and cut down forests or drain wetlands for commercial development, freshwater ecosystems - and their ability to provide benefits to all of us who depend on them - are severely threatened. We know these problems are likely to worsen as climate change alters weather patterns, intensifying both floods and periods of drought.

 Those of us who care about water need to find creative ways to work together to support healthy people and ecosystems.

With another Earth Day passed, I'm thinking about how to carry over the enthusiasm and energy of the day throughout the year. Building from a workshop on integrating WASH and conservation we held together for World Water Day, Catholic Relief Services, Conservation International, NRDC, The Nature Conservancy and WWF are working to compile case studies of integrated WASH and conservation projects. We're also looking at projects that  were less effective than they could have been, because these issues weren't addressed together.  Our hope is that organizations looking at the world's water crisis from all angles will be able to learn from these experiences. To share your examples of why integration is so important, or for more information on this topic in general, get in touch with me at sdavidson@tnc.org.

-- Sarah Davidson, International Freshwater Policy Advisor, TNC

 

For more information:

-- PATH's efforts to preserve our precious “Pale Blue Dot

-- World Water Day WASH and conservation workshop shows the connections between human and environmental health

 

Photo credits, top to bottom:

Bridget Besaw
Brian Richter/TNC