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Access to water is emerging as a security concern and a potential global flashpoint, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday.
Mr Lee told key water industry players at the start of a one-week water summit in Singapore that the provision of safe and cheap water was becoming harder because cities were growing bigger and global warming was having an effect.
Noting that the pace and scale of urbanisation has intensified the challenge of providing safe, reliable and affordable water, he told more than 5,000 people around the world at the start of the World Cities Summit and the Singapore International Water Week at the Suntec City on Tuesday morning: 'More and more cities and countries see access to water as a security concern and a potential trigger of conflict.'
'It is not enough to build the best water treatment plants and then neglect to protect the water catchments from squatters or pollution,' he said.
'There have been breakthroughs in water technologies, more so than in clean energy,' Mr Lee said, noting that desalination, water reuse and other water purification techniques have become significantly cheaper.
'More water is available, at the right price. With a workable funding model, it is possible to build and operate water factories on a sustainable basis.'
The Asian Development Bank said in November that developing countries in Asia could face an unprecedented water crisis within a decade due to a mismanagement of resources.
The Institute of Water Policy (IWP) was launched at the opening of the water summit, and will receive S$7.5 million in funding over the next five years from the government.
The institute will do research on water policy and water management issues and take on consultancy projects to advise governments and international organisations such as the World Bank.
'Global warming can aggravate this by altering existing water distribution patterns, intensifying droughts and disrupting the lives of millions, as is happening in Darfur,' he said, referring to the Sudanese region where conflict broke out five years ago.
'However, scarcity of water is rarely the sole problem. As a whole, the world is not short of water,' Mr Lee told the gathering of more than 5,000 people from around the world.
Mr Lee blamed the water scarcity on a lack of sound water management practices and called for more research and innovation in the sector.
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