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Running Dry
Worldwide consumption of water is doubling every 20 years. Aquifers are
already overexploited, creating serious shortages; the future looks even bleaker.
by Graemme Marshall
Government Water Commission maps show 96 overexploited aquifers in Mexico.
Seawater has polluted 17 others because of too much pumping, while toxic seepage
is spreading fast. Mexico City, built eight centuries ago atop vast lagoons,
cannot adequately supply water for its 22 million inhabitants.
Like many cities in the world, less than half of the city's waste is
treated. The rest sinks into underground lakes or flows toward the Gulf of
Mexico, turning rivers into sewers. This presents a chilling prospect for
Mexico's future. Cantu Suarez, a deputy director of the Mexican National
Water Commission, lists 35 cities that must shrink dramatically unless more
water can be found. Cities shrinking? Most cities continue to expand through
real estate development. Suarez says, "We would have to evacuate people.
Without water, it is the only way" (Mort Rosenblum, The Brownsville
Herald, Associated Press, Aug. 2, 2003).
A forced exodus from parched cities seems far-fetched, and no one suggests
it will happen next week. But it is a specter haunting Mexico's future.
Could a forced exodus of people from one city to another occur because there
is no water for them? The scenario isn't that far-fetched if you believe
Scripture.
Read what the ancient prophet Amos wrote: "I [God] also withheld rain
from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain
on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon,
and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered
to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have
not returned to Me, says the LORD" (Amos 4:7-8). This does sound
remarkably like a forced exodus in search of water.
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Other Articles by Graemme Marshall
Population:
Water shortage:
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