Water Shortages Continue to Threaten the World’s Growing Population
Posted by admin on April 20th, 2010 at 06:13am
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Scientists are working on a new way to turn sea water into drinking water.
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The lack of clean drinking water is a major problem worldwide. The World Health Organization says more than one billion people live in areas where renewable water resources are not available. The problem is especially serious in Asia and the Pacific. A United Nations report says water availability in that area is the second lowest in the world, after Africa.
Nearly seven hundred thousand people in Asia and the Pacific lack safe drinking water. The U.N. report notes that the world’s poorest countries are also the ones that use the most water for agriculture. Agriculture uses about eighty percent of the water in the Asia-Pacific area. There has also been an increase in water used for industry. China and India more than tripled their industrial water use between nineteen ninety-two and two thousand two.
The lack of clean drinking water around the world forces millions of people to drink unsafe water. This leads to an increase in diseases like diarrhea, the second leading cause of death in children under five. Floods, droughts, pollution and climate change have created even more problems.
The Millennium Development Goals for two thousand fifteen call for a fifty percent decrease in the number of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Scientists, governments and aid organizations around the world are increasing their efforts to meet these goals. Still the U.N. says there is much work to be done. During its yearly World Water Day observance last month it called on the international community to work together to solve the water crisis. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are doing just that.
The American and South Korean researchers are investigating a new technology for turning sea water into drinking water. The new technology is called ion concentration polarization. The process uses electricity to help separate electrically charged salt particles from water to make it drinkable.
The researchers tested their desalination process on a computer chip the size of a postage stamp. The chip removed ninety-nine percent of the salt and other harmful substances from water samples. So far the method purifies only small amounts of water. But the researchers say it may someday be available as a personal water purification product.
And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. I’m Steve Ember.
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Tags: development, water
Under Development Report
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14 Comments for Water Shortages Continue to Threaten the World’s Growing Population
1. nguyen thi ly | April 20th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
what happens with the file which i receive. it’s said that file is not found.please fix this problem to make your program much more perfect. thanks
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2. DHN | April 21st, 2010 at 7:25 am
@Nguyen Thi Ly: What ‘s the file do you want to say? The noitce said that file was not found mean you didn’t download it. Try againt. I ‘ll kindly help you if you are in trouble.
The audio file of this report is more quality than report before. I feel this report is really useful to protect environmment with necessary action and for our heath.
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3. tuyetngo | April 21st, 2010 at 8:13 am
I’m very pleased to listen the english lessons online
This is oppotunity to improve my listening english skill
I hope through these lessons I learn myself the vocabulary and garmmar as soon as possible
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4. bui thi chi | April 21st, 2010 at 9:10 am
Hi !
Thank you about your notes .
After , I read this comment , I think that it ‘s support for my idea” how can to help for survival of people on the earth and together live in peace
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5. lake | April 21st, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I faced w trouble like nguyen thi ly’s. I want to listen online not to download. I will substitute some other lesson for it.
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6. rua_con_u | April 21st, 2010 at 4:05 pm
I really don’t know why i cannot download this file
Please help me!
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7. Nguyen Thang | April 21st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
the file seem has a problem. Please check it. Thanks!
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8. dung | April 21st, 2010 at 5:41 pm
now a day water resource is important for our life.if lack of water it is difficult to have a good life.we need water
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9. dung | April 21st, 2010 at 5:43 pm
thanks u very much
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10. onthanhthang1990 | April 21st, 2010 at 11:02 pm
the lesson is very good.thanks.
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11. Bui Hong Quan | April 21st, 2010 at 11:39 pm
First of all, allow me to thank you for your website. I think to us improve English listening skill you need to have questions like IELTS test. With questions we can test ourself and more effective.
Thank you very much!
Good luck!
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12. nguyenhieu | April 22nd, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Clean drinking water is really important for our life, because we can’t live without water. But now,clean warter resouces is serious shortage. So, we must use it safely. I like the lesson today. Thank you so much and good luck !
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13. Dong | April 27th, 2010 at 8:24 am
Many stories that listen clearly but some is very difficult for new comers. pls help me to improve it
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14. Chau | June 21st, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Cleaning drinking water is extremtly necessary for people all over the world.If we drink a lot of cleaning water, we will have good health.In the other hand,if you drink unclean water, you will get deseases. Thanks for this lesson, because through this lesson, I can know more information about the bad things when we drink unclean water, and above all, that is the water shortages.So, we need to do something to save water and use water effectively. Saving water is saving money.Do you think so?
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