The overthrow of Madagascar’s president in mid-March was partly caused by water problems—in South Korea. Worried by the difficulties of increasing food supplies in its water-stressed homeland, Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate, signed a deal to lease no less than half Madagascar’s arable land to grow grain for South Koreans. Widespread anger at the terms of the deal (the island’s people would have received practically nothing) contributed to the president’s unpopularity. One of the new leader’s first acts was to scrap the agreement.
三月中旬，馬達加斯加總統下臺，水資源問題難逃其咎——韓國水資源問題。韓國大宇物流集團由于擔心國內水資源缺乏，糧食短缺日益嚴重，便租用馬達加斯加近一半面積的可耕種土地，用作韓國人民糧食供給。協議中的條款引起舉馬達加斯加不滿（因為人民幾乎一無所獲），總統的支持率跌至谷底。新總統上任后第一把火，就是撕毀協議。
Three weeks before that, on the other side of the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared a state of emergency. Not for the first time, he threatened water rationing in the state. “It is clear,” says a recent report by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.”
此事三周前，在世界另一端的加利福尼亞，州長阿諾.施瓦辛格宣布事態(tài)緊急，揚言要在州中分區(qū)供水——這已經不是第一次了。聯合國世界水資源評估方案最近報道也稱：“顯然，如果我們希望避免全球水危急，就必須采取緊急行動?！?BR> Local water shortages are multiplying. Australia has suffered a decade-long drought. Brazil and South Africa, which depend on hydroelectric power, have suffered repeated brownouts because there is not enough water to drive the turbines properly. So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in the 1980s and has barely begun to recover.
地方水資源短缺現象日益嚴峻。澳大利亞干旱十年，依賴水電的巴西和南非也因為缺水，渦輪不能正常運轉，只得受限電之苦。河流抽水過量，中亞咸海供水不足，20世紀80年代發(fā)生了生態(tài)災難后，一直沒能恢復。
Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. A global water crisis, which impinges on supplies of food and other goods, or affects rivers and lakes everywhere, is quite another. Does the world really face a global problem?
個人行為管理不善或者區(qū)域問題引發(fā)地方性短缺是一回事，然而危及糧食和其他產品供應，影響各處河流湖泊的水危機，則另當別論?，F在的世界，當真面臨著一個全球性問題嗎？
三月中旬，馬達加斯加總統下臺，水資源問題難逃其咎——韓國水資源問題。韓國大宇物流集團由于擔心國內水資源缺乏，糧食短缺日益嚴重，便租用馬達加斯加近一半面積的可耕種土地，用作韓國人民糧食供給。協議中的條款引起舉馬達加斯加不滿（因為人民幾乎一無所獲），總統的支持率跌至谷底。新總統上任后第一把火，就是撕毀協議。
Three weeks before that, on the other side of the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared a state of emergency. Not for the first time, he threatened water rationing in the state. “It is clear,” says a recent report by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.”
此事三周前，在世界另一端的加利福尼亞，州長阿諾.施瓦辛格宣布事態(tài)緊急，揚言要在州中分區(qū)供水——這已經不是第一次了。聯合國世界水資源評估方案最近報道也稱：“顯然，如果我們希望避免全球水危急，就必須采取緊急行動?！?BR> Local water shortages are multiplying. Australia has suffered a decade-long drought. Brazil and South Africa, which depend on hydroelectric power, have suffered repeated brownouts because there is not enough water to drive the turbines properly. So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in the 1980s and has barely begun to recover.
地方水資源短缺現象日益嚴峻。澳大利亞干旱十年，依賴水電的巴西和南非也因為缺水，渦輪不能正常運轉，只得受限電之苦。河流抽水過量，中亞咸海供水不足，20世紀80年代發(fā)生了生態(tài)災難后，一直沒能恢復。
Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. A global water crisis, which impinges on supplies of food and other goods, or affects rivers and lakes everywhere, is quite another. Does the world really face a global problem?
個人行為管理不善或者區(qū)域問題引發(fā)地方性短缺是一回事，然而危及糧食和其他產品供應，影響各處河流湖泊的水危機，則另當別論?，F在的世界，當真面臨著一個全球性問題嗎？