August 17, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani 7, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: The current patterns of development compromise long-term security of the earth and its people, warned an UN report, Global Challenge, Global Opportunity.

The report, released just before the start of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), at Johannesburg from 26 August to September 4, said air pollution kills three million people a year, 300 million suffer from malaria, one billion lack access to clean water and two billion lack access to proper sanitation facilities.

There are over 2.5 billion people who depend on fuel wood for cooking and heating, a major cause of indoor air pollution, and people in developed countries are using up to 10 times as much fossil fuel as people in developing countries.

“If current patterns of development continue, nearly half of the world’s people will suffer from water shortage within the next 25 years. The use of fossil fuels with greenhouse gas emissions will grow and the world’s forests will continue to disappear”.

With projections indicating that the world’s population will grow by about two billion people by 2025, the report underscores need for increased efforts to support sustainable development to better manage global resources in a rapidly changing world.

The report highlighted the toll of current patterns of development on global living standards and the earth’s natural resources.

In an assessment of current trends, it found that presently, 40 per cent of the world’s population faced water shortage. Global sea levels were rising indicating the impact of global warming.

Many plant and animal species were at risk of extinction. Nearly 2.4 per cent of the world’s forests were destroyed during the 1990s, the report said.

Reviewing data concerning the use of natural resources today, the global challenge, global opportunity made the following observations:

Water and Sanitation; despite some recent improvements in this area, one billion people still lacked access to safe drinking water. By 2025, half of the world’s population-3.5 billion people- will face serious water shortages.

Energy: Fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions continued to rise in the 1990s, particularly in Asia and in North America. Signs of climate change linked to global warming are also more apparent-for example, droughts have increased in frequency and intensity in parts of Asia and Africa.

Agricultural output: Demand for food is rising as the world population grows, while the capacity of food production to keep pace is diminishing, especially in developing countries. This situation creates a long-term threat to food security, particularly in regions where land has been degraded due to over- cultivation or desertification.

Biodiversity and ecosystems: An estimated 90 million hectares of forests was destroyed in the 1990s. Deforestation on this scale is a major threat to biodiversity as forests are home to two-thirds of terrestrial species.

In addition, 9 per cent of the world’s tree species are endangered, risking the loss of potential medicinal benefits from botanical sources.

Health: A high mortality rate in least developed countries is caused by environment-related disease. While some progress has been made in this area, contaminated water kills 2.2 million people per year.

The report called on over 100 world leaders to commit to a sustainable future as they prepare to attend the Summit, where a new global implementation plan to accelerate sustainable development is set to be finalized.

In recent years, demand for food has increased with the growth in the human population but also because food consumption per person has increased: from 2,100 to 2,700 calories in developing countries, and from 3,000 to 3,400 in industrialized nations.

The report finds that global water use has increased six- fold over the last century, twice the rate of population growth, and that agriculture represents 70 per cent of this consumption.

The greatest drain on the world’s freshwater supplies is inefficient agricultural irrigation systems, which loses about 60 per cent of the water during transport. The expansion of agricultural lands is the cause of deforestation and the single greatest threat to biodiversity and ecosystems.

While many of the world’s ocean fisheries are fully utilized or over-exploited, aquaculture is increasing rapidly to meet growing demand for fish but further growth will have to address environmental impacts.

Meanwhile, the minister for environment, Barrister Shahida Jamil would give details about Pakistan’s participation in the WSSD at the UN Centre on Tuesday.

She will lead Pakistan’s official delegation to the WSSD at Johannesburg.

The summit is expected to bring together hundreds of participants, heads of state and government, national delegates and leaders of non-governmental organisations and businesses.

The summit will focus the world’s attention and direct action towards meeting difficult challenges, including improving people’s lives and conserving national resources in a world whose population is growing and with ever-increasing demands for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security.