May 21, 2013 | 03:58 PM (BD Time) 21 May, 2013 Tuesday Water
Policy needs radical change for environment The international
community needs to "radically transform" the way it manages
water, energy and land to ensure the needs of the poorest people
are met and the environment is protected, according to the
European Report on Development, published on Wednesday. The
flagship report, Confronting scarcity: managing water, energy
and land for inclusive and sustainable growth, calls on the EU
to adopt an integrated approach to managing the three elements
to achieve universal access to water and energy, and sustainable
food security. An estimated 1 billion people are still
undernourished, around 0.9 billion have no access to safe water
and 1.5 billion have no electricity. The demand for water and
energy is expected to rise by 40% by 2030 and by 50% for food.
Badly managed or scarce resources tend to hit the poorest people
hardest. "Co-ordination failures between policies on water,
energy and land need to be addresse