Insight Plus - Part 8 – Water | Текст песни

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• Part 8 – Water

Группа Learning Engllish. Транскрипт:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/scripts/insight/tae_insight_08_01bs_080911.pdf

Gary: Water … Do we have enough of it? Will this precious resource be the cause of
future wars?
Turn the pages of your newspaper, tune in to the radio news: these topics
appear over and over again. Water is a subject that affects us all; it touches our
lives in different ways.
Clip
VOX POPS Comments from people in the field
Gary: The facts and figures that lie behind these human stories are dramatic. In this
series, we consider the themes that feature in BBC World Service news
programmes. Today's “big story” is water. Well focus on some of the issues
and, of course, the language behind the topic, and well look at how water is
reported in the news.
As science journalist Helen Sewell explains, “water” is a very broad subject.
Clip Helen Sewell, BBC Science Radio Unit
There are issues like sanitation, the availability of clean water, of water for you to wash your
hands in after you've been to the toilet, for example; to make sure that there are sewage
systems in place – and some of the poorer countries don't have those sewage systems. And
then, of course, if the water from peoples toilets gets mixed up with drinking water, then
you've got all sorts of problems and that can lead to many, many thousands of deaths. More
than a billion people worldwide already lack enough safe water to meet the minimum health
levels. And the UN Environment programme says that the water shortage is the second most
worrying problem this millennium – after global warming.
Gary: Helen Sewell of the BBC Science Radio Unit.
Huge numbers of people around the world do not have enough safe water to
drink. Many more do not have access to proper sanitation.
But what's the reason for this water shortage? Scientists tell us that the amount
of available water isn't changing – so are we just using more of it?
Clip Helen Sewell, BBC Science Radio Unit
We are using more of it. The world population is growing rapidly. So, of course, more
people use more water. And also more people need more food. So as more crops are planted,
more water is needed to make sure that those crops grow so that we can be fed as well as
watered. And one of the other reasons that were using more water for agriculture is that, in
places, where there was a lot of drought and the crops were naturally, I suppose, droughtresistant,
they've been replaced with these high-yield “miracle seeds”, which basically provide
much more food from the same crop as you would have from the drought-resistant crop, but of
course they need much more water to water them. And in addition, some people don't water
their crops in the most efficient way, so through poor irrigation methods a lot of water is lost
as well.
Gary: Water shortages are made worse through poor management of water resources
and inefficient watering of the land. In addition, safe water can become
contaminated as a result of poor sanitation or the chemical fertilisers used in
agriculture. So, how is it possible to ensure that people everywhere have access
to the water they need? Well, one answer is to build dams. But, of course,
dams don't provide a straightforward solution. They may supply energy and
fresh water to those who live nearby, but there's often a price to pay. In some
cases, millions of people are forced to leave their homes before the area is
flooded. In other cases, the people who live downstream may suddenly find
themselves without the water they once enjoyed.
When we bear in mind factors like these, we begin to understand how water
issues can lead to political disagreement and other tensions.
Clip Helen Sewell, BBC Science Radio Unit
At the moment Bangladesh is suffering because India has diverted and dammed so many of its
water sources.
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