Fresh water’s worth is rising fast, and that liquid asset will continue to appreciate in a world of climate change and chronic drought now plaguing many regions.
According to a United Nations world water development report released earlier this year, more than one billion jobs are heavily water-dependent and nearly 80% of jobs in the global workforce depend on access to adequate supplies of water and water-related services.
In B.C., illustration of the bottom-line value of clean water resources was underscored in “Asian drought seeds northern B.C. boon” (Business in Vancouver issue 1388; June 7-13).
The story chronicles the rapid rise of hay exports from the province’s north to Asia over the past five years. Main driver of that export bonanza: a severe drought in parts of China, Mongolia and South Korea that has significantly reduced sources of feed for Asian livestock herds, some of which are the largest in the world.
The drought, coupled with environmental mismanagement that has contaminated roughly 60% of China’s groundwater, is forcing widespread slaughter of livestock because there is not enough water to support feedstock for the animals.
Asian interest in northern B.C. hay is consequently rising, as is foreign interest in northern agricultural properties that support abundant hay and other crop production.
But that production relies on water.
There is no guarantee that B.C. will be spared similar rainfall reduction that will likewise limit crop production.
Meanwhile, BC Hydro’s $9 billion Site C dam, which will generate expensive power that some analysts project will have limited market demand, will also flood tens of thousands of acres of productive ranch and farm land.
That equation adds up to a poor use of a finite and increasingly valuable resource that remains the envy of many parts of the world where shortsighted policies have destroyed fresh water supplies and futures.
B.C. can’t afford to make the same mistakes. Neither can the wider world.
