Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced the formation of the U.S. Water Partnership (USWP), a new public-private organization connecting people, ideas, and resources to tackle the growing water crises throughout the world.

USWP represents a collaborative effort by NGOs, U.S. government agencies, and scientific and academic institutions to share knowledge and resources and to form partnerships to find solutions for increasing global water concerns. The Clean Water America Alliance, Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble, and Rockefeller Foundation are some of the 22 partners supporting the organization.

During Secretary Clinton’s speech at this year’s World Water Day, she also spoke of the recently released Department of State report entitled “Global Water Security,” which outlines current water usage and how growing water tensions are predicted to impact U.S. national security interests. The Global Water Security report predicts that as water shortages become more critical beyond the next 10 years, shared water basins could be used as leverage and weapons, and dams, pipelines, and desalination plants could become targets for terrorism.

“Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure. However, water problems—when combined with poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions—contribute to social disruptions that can result in state failure,” stated the report.

The report estimates that by 2030 annual global water requirements will hit 6,900 billion cubic meters (40 percent above the current sustainable water supplies) as the 2025 projected world population nears 8 billion people—a 1.2 billion increase between 2009 and 2025.

Countries currently already experiencing “water stress” include the western United States, southern Africa, northern Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and sections of China and South Asia, according to the report. One-third of the world’s population by 2030 will reside near water basins with water deficits larger than 50 percent. NASA satellite data has shown that northern India is depleting water faster than “any other comparable region in the world,” cited the report.

Water scarcity forces affected populations to rely on unsafe water sources for drinking water, which increases the risks of cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, and other waterborne diseases, noted the report. According to a 2006 United Nations Human Development Report, one child dies from a water-related disease approximately every 15 seconds.

Decreased fresh water quality from salt-water intrusion and industrial, biofuel, agricultural, and sanitation processes, along with climate change, are contributing to increased water scarceness. Investments in water treatment, energy, and technology reducing the amount of water necessary for agriculture, along with improved water management, will offer the best solutions to water challenges.

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Thousands of participants, 140 ministerial delegations, more than 80 ministers, and members of hundreds of organizations are gathered this week in Marseille, France for the Sixth World Water Forum. The week-long forum aims to bring water crises facing communities, governments, and regions across the world to the forefront of political agendas.

More than 780 million people worldwide lack safe drinking water, according to a 2012 UNICEF/WHO report. Approximately 2.5 billion people in 2010 lacked improved sanitation, and 15 percent (1.1 billion) of the world’s population practice open defecation. The recently released UN World Water Development Report (WWDR4) cites that 3.5 million deaths per year are linked to insufficient sanitation, hygiene, and water supply.

“For the past fifteen years, the World Water Forums have advanced the understanding of issues related to this important topic … Things have moved too slowly, and we must now move up a gear to achieve our common goal,” said France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon in his speech on Monday at the forum.

Meeting every three years since 1997, the forum provides a platform for debate through grassroots citizen involvement and the participation of experts and decision makers.  It also acts as a foundation for authorities to make commitments toward lasting solutions to global water challenges.

On Tuesday, forum participants announced that 2013 is going to be the “International Year of Water Cooperation.” Led by UNESCO, along with four other UN agencies, 2013 will focus on the successes achieved thus far in water cooperation, along with the span of water challenges still facing communities worldwide.

As a component of the Rural Water Supply Initiative in Africa, Chad, France, Italy, Ivory Coast, Niger, Republic of Congo, and Switzerland pledged $80 million. The Fourth African Water Week is scheduled in Cairo, Egypt for May 14-18, 2012.

During Wednesday’s Arab trialogue session, “Water and Energy,” Dr. Abid Thyab Al Ajeeli from the Arab Parliament predicted, “Currently 18 of the 22 Arab States suffer from water scarcity and by 2050 this will turn into water distress.” Holding only one percent of the planet’s fresh water, the Arab world contains five percent of the world’s population.

The panel discussion focused on desalination, already widespread in the Gulf States, and renewable energies as alternatives to the current fossil fuel reserves powering desalination plants. Zaher bin Khalid Al-Sulaimani, Director General of Projects for the Public Authority for Electricity and Water-Oman, stated that Oman relies on the sea for 80 percent of its population’s drinking water. During the next four years, Oman plans to invest in 200 MW of renewable energy projects.

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Despite objections from environmentalists and utility officials, New Jersey is under threat of mandatory fluoridation, which is the addition of fluoride chemicals into the public drinking water ostensibly to reduce tooth decay. Despite admission by the Federal Government that American children are fluoride over-exposed and that fluoride’s benefits are primarily topical, New Jersey legislators are crafting a law that will force fluoridation on the entire state, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

“Since fluoride’s benefits are topical, it makes no sense to swallow fluoride and makes even less sense to put fluoride into drinking water when fluoridated toothpaste is available to everyone,” says Paul Connett, PhD, FAN Executive Director and co-author of the book, The Case Against Fluoride.

NJ Senate Bill S-959 and Assembly Bill 1811 will require cities to add unnecessary, untested, health-robbing fluoride chemicals into the public water supplies. ”Not only does this unfunded mandate completely strip away all local control of fluoridation, but requires local taxpayers to fund the estimated $5 billion start-up cost and the annual $1 billion cost to maintain the practice,” says Connett.

“We suggest NJ residents quickly contact the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and Governor Christie to reject this ill-conceived unfunded fluoridation mandate,” says Connett.

Fluoridation chemicals—often purchased from Mexico, China, and Japan—are hazardous waste by-products of the phosphate fertilizer industry that are contaminated with trace levels of arsenic, lead and radionuclides. These industrial-grade chemicals were never tested for safety in humans or animals, and never received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

While the NJ House and Senate members rush to cast votes that will affect all residents of the State, the public’s voice is being ignored. Testimony was given in opposition to S-959 by the NJ League of Municipalities, the NJ Sierra Club, the NJ Business and Industry Association, the citizens’ group No Fluoride New Jersey, and by numerous local water companies and utilities who explained that fluoride is such a powerful chemical that over time it corrodes their equipment. But most NJ residents are unaware of this pending legislation.

Oddly, the push for mandatory fluoridation in New Jersey comes in the wake of an historical shift in the U.S. fluoridation program. Growing numbers of cities are stopping fluoridation because of health and cost concerns. Since 1990, more than 300 communities in North America voted to end fluoridation, including 43 cities serving approximately 3 million residents since October 2010.

On January 7, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended lowering the level of fluoride added to drinking water. This was in response to national survey data showing that41% of adolescents ages 12-15 have dental fluorosis, or discolored teeth, an outwardly visible sign of fluoride toxicity. However, the new level recommended by HHS (0.7 parts per million fluoride) is still too high to protect all citizens, especially people who drink large amounts of water, kidney patients and babies.

Adding fluoride to drinking water is also an Environmental Justice issue. Black and Mexican American children have significantly higher levels of the more severe forms of dental fluorosis. Add to that over 25published papers associating exposure to fluoride and reduced IQ in children while EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory lists fluoride as a developmental neurotoxicant.

Infants drinking formula made up with water containing 0.7 ppm fluoride will receive approximately 175 times more fluoride than a breast-fed infant. Many government, health and dental organizations now advise that infant formula should not be mixed with fluoridated water. Low-income children have a greater risk of suffering from all forms of fluoride toxicity, as poor diet exacerbates fluoride’s detrimental effects.

The NJ legislation was introduced without notifying or requesting comments from those opposing fluoridation. More than 4,000 professionals (including 331 dentists and 518 MD’s) urge that fluoridation be stopped citing scientific evidence that ingesting fluoride is ineffective at reducing tooth decay and has serious health risks. See statement.

Also, 11 US EPA unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals are calling for a moratorium on fluoridation. Connett says, “There are two fundamental scientific questions on water fluoridation: 1) does it work, 2) is it safe. The answer to both is no.”

“Fluoridation promoters routinely exaggerate benefits. The largest survey of tooth decay in the U.S. was conducted by the National Institute for Dental Research in 1986-87. The actual saving was just six-tenths of one tooth surface, without consideration that fluoride causes late tooth eruption. Even promoters of fluoridation now agree that fluoride works through contact with the tooth surface rather than by incorporation into developing enamel.

So this dispute comes down to whether the government should put fluoride into everyone’s water so that fluoride might eventually end up in the saliva to deliver this topical action or whether people should apply it themselves using fluoridated toothpaste. The first approach exposes every tissue of the body to a toxic substance and the second approach avoids that and also avoids forcing it upon people who don’t want it,” says Connett.

“The concerns of a landmark fluoride toxicology review by the National Research Council in 2006 included fluoride’s thyroid effects and fluoride’s ability to damage the brain. There have now been 25 studies showing that fluoride can lower the IQ of children. One well-conducted study found a threshold for this effect at 1.9 ppm.

That leaves a totally inadequate margin of safety to protect every child in America, when one considers the wide range of sensitivity and exposure in a large population,” says Connett. The US EPA is in the process of preparing a new health risk assessment for the maximum level of fluoride allowed as a contaminant in drinking water.

The Fluoride Action Network, a non-profit advocacy group, urges the representatives of New Jersey to delay their vote until the outcome of the EPA’s assessment is known. The conclusion reached by EPA, if they follow normal regulatory procedures, may well be that no amount of fluoride is considered safe for drinking water.

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