The Ven Te Chow Memorial Lecture: environment and development: urgent need for a water perspective
Falkenmark, M.
Water International 16(4): 229-240
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0250-8060 DOI: 10.1080/02508069108686116Document Number: 336989
The paper addresses water-cycle related environmental problems and goes on to analyse water-cycle related development problems. The paper asserts that drought-proneness is at the core of the problems in the most poverty-stricken countries. There, development is equivalent to challenging water scarcity (seasonal, interannual, or local), and environmental vulnerability. Particularly damaging is rapid population growth, especially as there are few models dealing with populations pressure on a finite, scarce, and highly seasonal water resource. The paper concludes that water is at the core of environmental problems and of development problems.