A survey commissioned by Circle of Blue and conducted by Toronto and London-based GlobeScan found that people across the globe view the fresh water crisis as the top environmental problem. The survey results were announced in Stockholm, Sweden, during World Water Week.
The survey found:
• People around the world view water pollution as the most important facet of the fresh water crisis; shortages of fresh water are very close behind. Concern about both issues tended to be higher in developing countries than in developed nations.
• People in Mexico and India, which are growing rapidly and rely heavily on agriculture for jobs and economic development, expressed the highest level of concern about water shortages in the farm sector.
• In all seven countries, respondents consistently said that governments were the most responsible for ensuring clean water.
• The respondents said that large companies were nearly as responsible as governments for ensuring clean water; nearly eight of 10 respondents from the seven nations said that solving drinking water problems “will require significant help from companies.
• In an expression of the results of $1 trillion dollars invested in regulations and water delivery and treatment infrastructure in the last two decades, Americans said they were less worried about safe drinking water and pollution than people in most of the other countries, though more than half still expressed concerns.
• Except for India, where 60 percent of respondents said they were “very concerned,” well under half of the respondents in the six other nations surveyed said they were not terribly worried about the “high cost” of water.
Detailed results are available at www.circleofblue.org.
Source: Circle of Blue
