water shortage水资源短缺.docxVIP

Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts (干旱) are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world’s population is expected to double in the next 50 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a widespreadwater crisis.　 But that doesn’t have to be the outcome. Water shortages do not have totrouble the world---if we start valuing water more than we did in the past. Just as we began to appreciatepetroleum more after the 1970s oil crises, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economic perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a virtually free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want.　 Instead, for all uses except the domesticdemand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its actual value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs.　 Governments should also protect this resource by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound (健康的) ways. For example, often the cheapest way to provide irrigation waterin the drytropics is through small-scaleprojects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions (凹地) and pumping it to nearby cropland.　No matter whatsteps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their institutional and legal approaches to water use. Rather than spread control among hundreds or even thousands of local, regional, and nationalagencies that watch various aspects of water use, countries should set up central authorities to coordinate (调整) water policy人类使用的水量不足全世界可利用水的一半,但是在一些地方因缺水和干旱发生了饥饿和贫困,工业和农业的副产品正在污染着水源.因预计全世界的人口在今后五十年会翻一番,许多专家认为我们已经处于普遍的水危机边缘.但这未必就是结果.如果我们现在开始比过去更加节约用水,缺水问题不会造成困扰.正如上世纪七十年代石油危机以后我们开始更重视石油一样,今天我们必须从新的角度看待水.我们不能再认为我们愿意用多少就用多少,愿意怎么用就怎么用这实际上免费的资源.相反,除了贫困家庭所需要的供水之外,政府对所有的用水都会用价格反映水的实际价格.这就意味着不仅要收供水的成本费,也要收水本身的费用.政府还应当用经济和环保方面更可行的方法来供水以保护这一资源.例如,在干旱