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Background
Water
and coastal resources are critical to sustainable development. Fresh
water, in particular, is often viewed as the earth's most precious natural
resource. Coastal areas encompassing coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass
beds, lagoons, bays, and nearshore waters contain tremendous biodiversity
and provide the sheltered waters and high economic productivity that
have attracted human settlements. However, mismanagement and degradation
of freshwater and coastal resources are growing problems. Demand for
freshwater resources of sufficient quantity and acceptable quality for
human consumption, sanitation, irrigation, and industry will continue
to intensify, as populations increase and as urbanization, industrialization,
and commercial development accelerate. Similarly, coastal resources
and ecological habitats are being seriously degraded. Half of the world's
population now lives within 60 kilometers of a shoreline, and this percentage
is likely to rise to as much as three quarters by 2020. These development
and human demands are increasingly threatening the integrity and health
of biologically rich yet shrinking aquatic ecosystems.
Purpose
The
international community has reached a consensus that water and coastal
resources must be managed using a comprehensive, integrated approach.
USAID, recognizing the urgency to address these critical issues of competing
human and ecosystems needs, has developed this innovative Water IQC
Initiative. The Water IQC provides the vehicle to identify and employ
innovative approaches to resolve the wide range of water and coastal
resource management issues facing the world today.
USAID's FY 2003
obligations for water-related activities worldwide were estimated to
be $460 million. Below are two recently prepared Reports to Congress
on "USAID Investments in Drinking
Water Supply and Related Activities" and "USAID's
Water Portfolio (2003)."
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