“Rivers in crisis”, alerts the cover of the latest issue of the magazineNature. The figures in the report you refer to are staggering: environmental stress, agricultural runoff, pollution and invasive speciesthreaten rivers that serve 80% of the world’s population. And these threats also endanger the biodiversity of 65% of freshwater habitats.
The study has allowed theanalysis of the effects of pollution, dams and reservoirs, the excessive use of water, agricultural runoff or the loss of swamps, among other aspects. According to the authors, the results are “cautious”, because they do not have enough information on additional stressors such as pharmaceutical compounds and mining waste.
The researchers caution that “human water security and biodiversity threats cannot be examined further independently.” In fact, they warn, many stressors threaten water security, such asreservoirs, have few negative effects on human water supplies butchallenge “significantly” aquatic biodiversity, since they hinder migration routes and change water flow regimes.
The study also highlights the high levels of incident threats to human water safety in developed and developing countries around the world. Areas affected include the US, virtually all of Europe, and much of Central Asia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and eastern China.
Prevent better than cure
“We have unveiled a broad core management operative on a global scale. In the industrialized world we tend to compromise our surface waters and then we try to fix the problems by investing billions of dollars in each one. We can afford to do that in the world. rich countries, but the poor cannot afford these costs, “says Charles J. Vörösmarty, author of the study and professor at the Grove School of Engineering (USA).
? As with preventive medicine, the study shows thatdiagnose and then limit threats at their local sourceRather than through costly remedies and rehabilitation, it is more effective and the most sensible approach to ensure global water security for both humans and aquatic biodiversity ,? clarifies Vörösmarty.
