Ac version 3 Observation 1: sq 4

Uniq: Water Scarcity in LA Now

Water shortages in Latin America now– less than 20% have access, poverty, inequality

Beeson 08 – Freelance journalist and campaign organizer focusing on politics and the environment in Latin America (Bart, “Latin America: Why There’s a Water Crisis in the Most Water-Rich Region”, North American Congress on Latin America, 5/1/2008, http://www.alternet.org/story/84145/latin_america%3A_why_there's_a_water_crisis_in_the_most_water-rich_region)//BD

The 16th commemoration of World Water Day came and went in March with little fanfare. Francisco, a retired construction worker in El Salvador, didn't have much to celebrate anyway. When I spoke with him on the poor outskirts of San Salvador last December, water had not come out of his faucets for months. Despite making minimum wage, or about $161 a month, he still dutifully pays his $7 dollar water bill every month. "I keep paying the bill, because if my service is disconnected, then I'll have to pay even more to get it reconnected," he reasons.¶ Until the water company decides to fix the neighborhood's water pump, Francisco and his neighbors not only pay a useless water bill, but they are also forced to buy barrels of water from a tanker truck for an additional $1.50. "We don't have any other choice," he explains. "We have to have water."¶ Water troubles like Francisco's are common throughout Latin America, but the region's citizens are increasingly joining together to do something about it, channeling their frustration into action. Social organizing around water rights is not new in Latin America, but with growing problems of access and contamination, these movements have gained greater urgency, strength, and focus.¶ One of the most famous victories of this growing upsurge occurred in Uruguay, where organizations successfully organized a national referendum on water rights. In 2004, the Uruguayan government's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) threatened to put the water system under private management. But the citizens' campaign forced the government to adopt a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing management would remain in the hands of the state and declaring water access a human right. Similar amendment efforts on the right to water have now emerged in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico.¶ The Problem With Water¶ The state of the current world water crisis is well documented: 1.2 billion people are without access to safe water, 2.6 billion are without access to sanitation, and nearly 2 million children die every year because they don't have access to an adequate supply of clean water.¶ With the most annual rainfall of any region in the world, the water crisis in Latin America is particularly perplexing. Latin American countries face many of the same problems as countries with chronic fresh water shortages. And less than 20 percent have access to adequate sanitation systems.¶ So why do so many people lack access to clean water, when water abounds in the region? In 2006, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported the answer clearly: "The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, not in physical availability."¶ And since Latin America has one of the most inequitable income distribution rates in the world, water access in the region is equally skewed. What's more, a 2006 World Bank study shows average water bills in Latin America are the highest of all regions in the developing world.¶ Poor people bear the brunt of problems associated with water contamination and "scarcity." Additional studies have found the poor pay more for clean water, spend more time and effort collecting water, and are much more likely to suffer health problems from contaminated water.¶ The UNDP report adds, "People suffering the most from the water and sanitation crisis -- poor people in general and poor women in particular -- often lack the political voice needed to assert their claims to water." Yet the water movements brewing in Latin America are beginning to make their collective political voice heard.

Uniq: Water Crisis Now

Water Crisis in Latin America –poverty, industrialization, city consumption, leakage, pollution from wastes

Clarke and Barlow 04 - *Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, **Director of the Polaris Institute (Maude and Tony, “The Struggle for Latin America’s Water”, North American Congress on Latin America, July 2004, https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/global-public-goods-1-101/46052.html#authors)//BD

Latin America is blessed with an abundance of fresh water. The region contains four of the world's 25 largest rivers - the Amazon, Paraná, Orinoco and Magdalena - and their combined run-off of 5,470 cubic miles almost equals the combined run-off of the other 21. Some of the world's large lakes are also located in Latin America, including Maracaibo in Venezuela, Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia, Poopo in Bolivia, and Buenos Aires, shared by Chile and Argentina. Twenty percent of global runoff - the renewable water source that constitutes our fresh water supply - comes from the Amazon Basin alone. With one-fifth of the globe's water resources, Brazil on its own has more water than any other country.1 The region as a whole has one of the highest per capita allocations of fresh water in the world - a little less than 110,500 cubic feet per person per year. Geography, pollution and social inequality, however, badly skew Latin Americans' access to water, and very few consume anything near their full personal allocation.¶ As a relatively parched country, Mexico has a miniscule potential supply of approximately 13,000 cubic feet per person. Natural desert is merging with a spreading human-induced desert over much of the Valley of Mexico, the country's cradle of pre-conquest civilization and present-day home of the nation's capital. Once called the "Venice of the New World" due to its being built atop a lake and intersected with canals, Mexico City is now sinking in on itself as it drains the last of its accessible aquifers from the lakebed below. This is a legacy of the conquering Spanish, who used slave labor to dismantle the more sustainable water systems of the original inhabitants.¶ In South America, human-induced salination is causing desertification in significant parts of Peru, Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. In total - factoring in the large natural deserts of Patagonia in southern Argentina and the Atacama in northern Chile - about 25% of Latin America is now arid or semi-arid. Most of the Caribbean is also fresh water deprived, since the islands are too small to have substantial rivers.2¶ Poor farming practices, unregulated industrialization and urban poverty have massively and negatively affected Latin America's water resources. Booming, concentrated populations in Latin America's mega-cities are devouring and contaminating their water supplies, forcing officials to seek out increasingly distant sources. In most large cities, over 50% of the water supply is lost through infrastructure leakage. Some cities lose almost 90% through leaky pipes.3 Mexico City now depends on aquifers for 70% of its water and is mining these underground sources up to 80 times faster than they are naturally replenished.4 Meanwhile, São Paulo is threatening residents with water rationing. The city is relying on sources farther and farther away, hiking the cost of delivery beyond many peoples' ability to pay for it.¶ Throughout the region, water basins and aquatic habitats are routine dumpsites for garbage, mining effluent, and industrial and agricultural waste. Pollution in the waterways along the U.S.-Mexico border is so bad that some refer to it as a "2,000-mile Love Canal," in reference to an upstate New York neighborhood that was declared a federal emergency in 1978 because of chemical contamination. The region's heaviest polluter is Brazil - the country with the most water. Brazil allows massive chemical and industrial pollution, including mercury dumping from its gold mining industry. Only parts of Eastern Europe and China exceed Brazil's levels of waterway contamination. Most of Latin America's wastewater still flows untreated back into its rivers, lakes and canals.¶ Rampant poverty is another factor. After years of structural adjustment imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, as a region, Latin America has the most inequitable income distribution in the world. Mirroring this is a pattern of tremendously unequal access to water. More than 130 million people have no safe drinking water in their homes, and only an estimated one out of every six persons enjoys adequate sanitation service.5 The situation worsens as policies favoring industrial agriculture drive millions of subsistence farmers into the cities' overpopulated slums every year.¶ The destruction of water sources, combined with inequitable access, has left most Latin Americans "water poor." And millions live without access to clean water at all. While the region's available resources could provide each person with close to 110,500 cubic feet of water every year, the average resident has access to only 1,010 cubic feet per year. This compares to North America's annual average of 4,160 cubic feet and Europe's 2,255.6¶

Uniq: Water Shortages Now

Water Shortages in Latin America escalating now

Beeson 2k8

(Burt, “Latin America: Why There's a Water Crisis in the Most Water-Rich Region,” pg online @ http://www.alternet.org/story/84145/latin_america%3A_why_there's_a_water_crisis_in_the_most_water-rich_region //um-ef)

Water troubles like Francisco's are common throughout Latin America, but the region's citizens are increasingly joining together to do something about it, channeling their frustration into action. Social organizing around water rights is not new in Latin America, but with growing problems of access and contamination, these movements have gained greater urgency, strength, and focus. One of the most famous victories of this growing upsurge occurred in Uruguay, where organizations successfully organized a national referendum on water rights. In 2004, the Uruguayan government's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) threatened to put the water system under private management. But the citizens' campaign forced the government to adopt a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing management would remain in the hands of the state and declaring water access a human right. Similar amendment efforts on the right to water have now emerged in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico. The Problem With Water The state of the current world water crisis is well documented: 1.2 billion people are without access to safe water, 2.6 billion are without access to sanitation, and nearly 2 million children die every year because they don't have access to an adequate supply of clean water. With the most annual rainfall of any region in the world, the water crisis in Latin America is particularly perplexing. Latin American countries face many of the same problems as countries with chronic fresh water shortages. And less than 20 percent have access to adequate sanitation systems. So why do so many people lack access to clean water, when water abounds in the region? In 2006, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported the answer clearly: "The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, not in physical availability." And since Latin America has one of the most inequitable income distribution rates in the world, water access in the region is equally skewed. What's more, a 2006 World Bank study shows average water bills in Latin America are the highest of all regions in the developing world. Poor people bear the brunt of problems associated with water contamination and "scarcity." Additional studies have found the poor pay more for clean water, spend more time and effort collecting water, and are much more likely to suffer health problems from contaminated water. The UNDP report adds, "People suffering the most from the water and sanitation crisis -- poor people in general and poor women in particular -- often lack the political voice needed to assert their claims to water." Yet the water movements brewing in Latin America are beginning to make their collective political voice heard.

Coop Key: Water

Nanotech key to water purification and supply—collaboration key

Brum et al 09

(A. Brum*, P. Herrman**, * director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory; Senior associate at the IBSA, ** Researcher at Embrapa Agricultural Instrumentation, “Developing world advances nanotech for clean water”, 06/05, 2009, http://www.scidev.net/global/water/opinion/developing-world-advances-nanotech-for-clean-water.html//VS)

Water shortages, unreliable water supplies and poor water quality are major obstacles to sustainable development. Millions of children die each year due to water shortages or exposure to water-related diseases. And the UN predicts that by 2025, more than one third of the world's population — over 3.5 billion people — will face severe water shortages.¶ Nanotechnology can help alleviate these problems by offering new techniques and equipment for conducting water research as well as new purification methods.¶ While some nanotech water treatments are being developed in Europe, Japan and the United States — researchers at US-based Rice University have, for example, created a nano-based product to remove arsenic from water supplies (see 'Nanotechnology for clean water: Facts and figures') — developing countries too are investing in research to harness nanotechnology for clean water. Joint action¶ The IBSA nanotechnology initiative — a collaborative research and development programme between the Departments of Science and Technology in India, Brazil and South Africa — shows how South-South collaboration can promote the use of nanotechnology for clean water and points to progress being made in these countries.¶ IBSA identifies three areas of research as high priority: nanofiltration and ultrafiltration membranes; nano-based water purification systems for remote and rural areas; and carbon nanogels, nanotubes and nanofibres.¶ While carbon nanotube projects are still in the early phases of planning, progress in the other priority areas is well under way.¶ In the field of nanofiltration, South Africa's North-West University has built a treatment plant that incorporates ultrafiltration membranes to clean brackish groundwater in a ruralvillage. The plant removes pollutants such as chloride, nitrate, phosphate and sulphate to produce safe drinking water for domestic and community use(see 'Community ownership is key to nanotech water projects').¶ In Brazil the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa, is hoping to develop a biodigestion system using nanofilters to clean irrigation supplies and, eventually, make the water safe for drinking .Biodigestion, without nanofilters, is already used to treat sewage in both rural and urban areas.¶ Embrapa is also developing magnetic nanoparticles to treat water contaminated with pesticides. This class of technology seems especially suitable for removing organic pollutants, salts and heavy metals from liquids.

Solvency: Nano Solves Water in LA

Nanotechnology resolves water access—Latin America key

Singer et al 07

Singer-director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, codirector of the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health; Daar-codirector of the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health; Buentello-Researcher and graduate student at University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health (Peter A., Abdallah S., Fabio S., “Harnessing Nanotechnology to Improve Global Equity”, 2007, http://www.issues.org/21.4/singer.html//VS)

Water treatment and remediation. One-sixth of the world’s population lacks access to safe water supplies; one-third of the population of rural areas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has no clean water; and 2 million children die each year from water-related diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and schistosomiasis. Nanotechnology can provide inexpensive, portable, and easily cleaned systems that purify, detoxify, and desalinate water more efficiently than do conventional bacterial and viral filters. Nanofilter systems consist of “intelligent” membranes that can be designed to filter out bacteria, viruses, and the great majority of water contaminants. Nanoporous zeolites, attapulgite clays (which can bind large numbers of bacteria and toxins), and nanoporous polymers (which can bind 100,000 times more organic contaminants than can activated carbon) can all be used for water purification.¶ Nanomagnets, also known as “magnetic nanoparticles” and “magnetic nanospheres,” when coated with different compounds that have a selective affinity for diverse contaminating substances, can be used to remove pollutants from water. For example, nanomagnets coated with chitosan, a readily available substance derived from the exoskeleton of crabs and shrimps that is currently used in cosmetics and medications, can be used to remove oil and other organic pollutants from aqueous environments. Brazilian researchers have developed superparamagnetic nanoparticles that, coated with polymers, can be spread over a wide area in dustlike form; these modified nanomagnets would readily bind to the pollutant and could then be recovered with a magnetic pump. Because of the size of the nanoparticles and their high affinity for the contaminating agents, almost 100 percent of the pollutant would be removed. Finally, the magnetic nanoparticles and the polluting agents would be separated, allowing for the reuse of the magnetic nanoparticles and for the recycling of the pollutants. Also, magnetite nanoparticles combined with citric acid, which binds metallic ions with high affinity, can be used to remove heavy metals from soil and water.

Solvency: Water Pathogens

Nanotech key to adaptable filtration—solves water purity

Hillie 06

(T. Hillie, Chair, Nanotechnology and Metrology Group Leader, Nanometrology, at the Council on Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa, “nanotechnology, water & development”, 2006, http://www.merid.org/~/media/Files/Projects/nano-waterworkshop/NanoWaterPaperFinal.ashx//VS)

Researchers are using nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes, alumina¶ fibers) to build structures that have controlled shapes, density, and¶ dimensions for specific filtration applications. For instance, researchers¶ have developed and tested cylindrical membranes with pores tiny¶ enough to filter out the smallest organisms.¶ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the U.S. and Banaras Hindu University52¶ in India devised a simple method to produce carbon nanotube filters that¶ efficiently remove micro- to nanoscale contaminants from water. Made¶ entirely of carbon nanotubes, the filters are easily manufactured using a¶ novel method for controlling the cylindrical geometry of the structure.¶ Carbon nanotube filters offer a level of precision suitable for different¶ applications as they can remove 25-nanometer-sized polio viruses from¶ water as well as larger pathogens¶ such as E. coli and Staphylococcus¶ aureus bacteria. The nanotube¶ based water filters were found to¶ filter bacteria and viruses and were¶ more resilient and reusable than¶ conventional membrane filters. The¶ filters were reusable and could be¶ cleaned by heating the nanotube¶ filter or purging. Nano-engineered¶ membranes allowed water to flow¶ through the membrane faster than¶ through conventional filters due to¶ the straighter membranes than¶ conventional filters.53

Solvency: Desal

And, Nano Breakthroughs are essential for effective desalination

Hinkebein 2k4

(Thomas Hinkebein, Sandia National Laboratories, “Desalination: Limitations and Challenges,” pg online @ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK83737/ //um-ef)

The implementation of novel technologies in a tight financial market requires that any new technology be completely proven in order to achieve its full deployment. Completely proving a new technology requires that this technology proceed through the demonstration stage. By carrying only the most promising research to the next and more costly levels, a cost-effective research program is constructed. The other part of desalination that ends up being a problem is that we function in an environment where the rates of return are incredibly small. We have single-digit rates of return for most water utilities. The end result is that when you think about how it is that we are going to get new technologies deployed, you need to, as part of some kind of government program, establish some method of assisting with the deployment of new technologies. In the low-risk, low-reward environment, there is little driving force for utilities to try field processes on their own. The end result is that the only way you get a lot of new technologies in the field is by having demonstration projects. The program that we have been trying to move forward with the government, with both congressional and administration support, is to have a demonstration facility that actually helps with this high end of moving the technologies to the field, which implies that there is a huge amount of work that goes on underneath that. Figure 4.10 provides a view of the comprehensive implementation strategy. The Roadmap actually sits in the upper left-hand corner, where new technologies are developed. Activity is also needed that deals with characterizing the resource. Many implementation issues such as owners' rights, states' rights, and regulatory issues must be dealt with. The whole idea of commercializing a new venture requires an additional level of interaction. To deploy any of these strategies on a global scale, they will have to be advanced through the process. Don Burland, of the National Science Foundation, remarked that the discontinuity illustrated in Figure 4.1 is caused by changing technologies. He wondered if Dr. Hinkebein knew of any technologies that can bring the trajectory down in that way. Dr. Hinkebein said such potential future advancements will be in the area of cross-fertilization technologies currently in existence for other applications. These technologies are now being looked at for water applications. He said that broadly examining all separation technologies many lead to solutions for the future. In particular, Hinkebein thought recent advances in understanding the nanometer scale might bring such improvements. He said that when you start to look at the energy requirements to move water through a RO membrane, there is a minimum amount of energy required. Currently this is only about three to five times the minimum energy in the typical RO membrane. Therefore, there is still room for growth, but the methods to make that growth occur will have to be evolutionary in scope, and not revolutionary. Dr. Hinkebein also said that with nanotechnology, it becomes possible to move ionic species very small distances. This presents the potential for separating fresh water and concentrate in a different kind of environment where the minimum energy is constrained only by how small the flow field can be made.

Solvency: Microsensors

Nanotechnology key to micro sensors—solves water access

Brum et al 09

(A. Brum*, P. Herrman**, * director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory; Senior associate at the IBSA, ** Researcher at Embrapa Agricultural Instrumentation, “Developing world advances nanotech for clean water”, 06/05, 2009, http://www.scidev.net/global/water/opinion/developing-world-advances-nanotech-for-clean-water.html//VS)

Another area of interest to IBSA is to combine micro- and nano-fabrication technology with new sensor technology to create small, disposable, portable, and highly accurate sensors for detecting chemicals and biochemicals in water.¶ The potential impact of nanotechnology on the sensor market is huge in the developing and developed world alike. For example, industry analyst NanoMarkets reports that nanotech sensors generated global revenues of US$2.7 billion in 2008 and estimates it will reach US$7.2 billion in 2012.¶ In Brazil, The National Nanotechnology Laboratory Applied to Agribusiness, housed at Embrapa's agricultural instrumentation unit in São Paulo, has developed a cheap optical sensor incorporating nano-assembled films to evaluate the acidity of natural water supplies. And 'electronic tongues' —another kind of polymer sensor developed at Embrapa — can be used to distinguish between different mineral waters and between pure water and water contaminated by organic matter.¶ Nanotechnology can have a great impact on our lives, promising benefits and, perhaps, risks. We have to consider both if we are to exploit this new technology to its full extent.¶ Developing countries have as much to contribute as more developed regions of the world, and while much research remains to be done, the IBSA initiative shows we are already on the way to finding nano-based solutions to clean water.

Solvency: Water Access

Nanotech solves water access

Science Daily 05

(Science Daily Magazine, “Nanotechnology's Miniature Answers To Developing World's Biggest Problems”, 05/12/2005, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050512120050.htm//VS)

Water treatment is third-ranked by the panel. "One-sixth of the world's population lacks access to safe water supplies," says Dr. Salamanca-Buentello.¶ "More than one third of the population of rural areas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has no clean water, and two million children die each year from water-related diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and schistosomiasis, which result from a lack of adequate water sources and sanitation."¶ Nano-membranes and nano-clays are inexpensive, portable and easily cleaned systems that purify, detoxify and desalinate water more efficiently than conventional bacterial and viral filters. Researchers also have developed a method of large-scale production of carbon nano-tube filters for water quality improvement.¶ Other water applications include systems (based on titanium dioxide and on magnetic nano-particles) that decompose organic pollutants and remove salts and heavy metals from liquids, enabling the use of heavily contaminated and salt water for irrigation and drinking. Several of the contaminating substances retrieved could then be easily recycled.

Impacts: Water Wars

Water wars outweighs and turns economy – constrains economic growth, leads to war

Lean 09 – Leading British environmental correspondent for the Telegraph (Geoffrey, “Water scarcity ‘now bigger threat than financial crisis’”, The Independent, 3/15/2009, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/water-scarcity-now-bigger-threat-than-financial-crisis-1645358.html)//BD

Humanity is facing "water bankruptcy" as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy, two authoritative new reports show. They add that it is already beginning to take effect, and there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity.¶ The two reports – one by the world's foremost international economic forum and the other by 24 United Nations agencies – presage the opening tomorrow of the most important conference on the looming crisis for three years. The World Water Forum, which will be attended by 20,000 people in Istanbul, will hear stark warnings of how half the world's population will be affected by water shortages in just 20 years' time, with millions dying and increasing conflicts over dwindling resources.¶ A report by the World Economic Forum, which runs the annual Davos meetings of the international business and financial elite, says that lack of water, will "soon tear into various parts of the global economic system" and "start to emerge as a headline geopolitical issue".¶ It adds: "The financial crisis gives us a stark warning of what can happen if known economic risks are left to fester. We are living in a water 'bubble' as unsustainable and fragile as that which precipitated the collapse in world financial markets. We are now on the verge of bankruptcy in many places with no way of paying the debt back."¶ The Earth – a blue-green oasis in the limitless black desert of space – has a finite stock of water. There is precisely the same amount of it on the planet as there was in the age of the dinosaurs, and the world's population of more than 6.7 billion people has to share the same quantity as the 300 million global inhabitants of Roman times.¶ Water use has been growing far faster than the number of people. During the 20th century the world population increased fourfold, but the amount of freshwater that it used increased nine times over. Already 2.8 billion people live in areas of high water stress, the report calculates, and this will rise to 3.9 billion – more than half the expected population of the world – by 2030. By that time, water scarcity could cut world harvests by 30 per cent – equivalent to all the grain grown in the US and India – even as human numbers and appetites increase.¶ Some 60 per cent of China's 669 cities are already short of water. The huge Yellow River is now left with only 10 per cent of its natural flow, sometimes failing to reach the sea altogether. And the glaciers of the Himalayas, which act as gigantic water banks supplying two billion people in Asia, are melting ever faster as global warming accelerates. Meanwhile devastating droughts are crippling Australia and Texas.¶ The World Water Development Report, compiled by 24 UN agencies under the auspices of Unesco, adds that shortages are already beginning to constrain economic growth in areas as diverse and California, China, Australia, India and Indonesia. The report, which will be published tomorrow, also expects water conflicts to break out in the Middle East, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Colombia and other countries.¶ "Conflicts about water can occur at all scales," it warns. "Hydrological shocks" brought about by climate change are likely to "increase the risk of major national and international security threats".

2AC: Water k Relations/Diplomacy

Water supply key to US-Mexico relations – requires diplomacy, could result in water wars, poor crops in the region

Smith 01 – Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles times in Mexico City (James, “Water Woes Strain U.S.-Mexico Relations”, Los Angeles Times, 6/17/2001, pg. Proquest)//BD

Rio Bravo, Mexico-The Anzalduas Canal should be brimming with water this spring, irrigating thousands of acres of rich Mexican farmland south of the Rio Grande along the Texas border.¶ Instead, one of the largest canals in Latin America holds only a foot or two of stagnant water, choked with reeds and old tires.¶ The pathetic conduit is one sign of a water shortage so severe that for the first time in recorded history, the Rio Grande stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico in February. The sluggish river has so much silt in it that it has become a new informal border crossing.¶ The water shortage on both sides of the border is an early, urgent test for 21st century U.S.-Mexican diplomacy: managing scarce natural resources in one of North America's fastest-growing regions.¶ A flurry of diplomatic initiatives may yet turn the water crisis into a showcase of cross-border cooperation, producing a new approach to joint long-term planning and management of the 1,250-mile river watershed from El Paso to the gulf. Or it could degenerate into a bitter water war between southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.¶ At the heart of the dispute is a 1944 treaty that calls for Mexico to give the United States one-third of the water flowing from its tributaries into the Rio Grande-and a minimum of 350,000 acre-feet of water per year. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover one acre a foot deep.) Mexico blames severe drought for its failure to meet its quotas since 1994. Mexico now owes the United States about 1.1 million acre-feet.¶ Neither Mexican nor Texas farmers accept the drought explanation.¶ They blame inept water management and uncontrolled growth hundreds of miles higher up the Rio Grande watershed, in the distant western Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico's Chihuahua state.¶ Certainly water use has exploded along with population growth in both the United States and Mexico. When the treaty was signed in 1944, the border region population was just below 1 million. Now it is 11 million-and it could surge to 24 million by 2020.¶ The impact is worst in Texas' lower Rio Grande Valley and Mexico's Tamaulipas state.¶ Leaders of the 40,000 farmers in Tamaulipas last month demanded a $100-per-acre payment to offset poor crops that resulted from the lack of water. With as many as 500,000 acres affected, the claim could be worth $50 million.¶ The Texas farmers, who claim annual losses of $400 million or more because of the water shortage, are furious that the U.S. government let Mexico get away with running up such a huge water debt during the 1990s. The debt looks almost impossible to repay fully by the October 2002 deadline when the current five-year treaty cycle ends.¶ The new Mexican and U.S. administrations have made progress in recent months. President George W. Bush, a Texan, pressed President Vicente Fox to do something to help. In March, Mexican and U.S. officials signed a deal in Washington to nearly double Mexico's water payments this year-600,000 acre-feet of Rio Grande basin water by July 31, or by Sept. 30 if drought conditions are severe.¶ Even if Mexico manages to comply, Texas farmers will still be short of water. And the larger payment will leave even less water for downstream Mexican farmers.¶ The impact is plain in the fields of withered, foot-tall sorghum plants around the Anzalduas Canal's main channel in the town of Rio Bravo, between the cities of Reynosa and Matamoros.¶ Farmer Javier Cantu said his 500 acres normally yield as many as 1.6 tons of sorghum grain per acre. Now he will be lucky to get half that much from some acreage. He predicts a loss of about $120 per acre.¶ "This year I won't even get close to covering my costs," Cantu said.¶ Jaime Garza, a water consultant for a cooperative in Rio Bravo, said average yields are likely to be down 40 percent this year because of lack of water.¶ Juan Minana, head of the farmers council for the worst-affected Mexican water district, looks upstream for the blame, to the Rio Conchos in Chihuahua, where "the uses of water have been constantly increased."¶ Texas farmers are hurting as well. Jimmie Steidinger, a farmer in Donna who grows what may be the sweetest grapefruits in Texas, proudly took a visitor through his immaculate, laser-leveled fruit fields. He has invested heavily in tubing and other new irrigation technology to reduce waste.¶ The water shortage forced him to buy $38,000 in water rights last year, cutting profits as much as 25 percent. "We've always had two things against us: the weather and the markets," Steidinger said. "Now we've got a third, unnecessary risk factor: water. This could break a lot of farmers, and some have already gone under."¶ Jo Jo White, head of the water district around Mercedes, Texas, said a consultant's study found that Mexico has no real drought, just overuse in the Conchos watershed. "It's been a big hickey put on our economy down here, and south Texas already is a poor part of the United States," White said.¶ At their summit in February, Fox and Bush made the water dispute a priority. Their negotiators agreed a month later not only to speed Mexican deliveries but also to begin work on a joint management plan for the Rio Grande basin.¶ Thus the crisis could prove the catalyst for a new approach to managing border resources.¶ Enrique Berruga, Mexico's deputy foreign secretary for North America, said that beyond paying back more water, "we said to the U.S. that we want to work together on an issue critical to both countries-and that means not just water, but planning on the border."¶ Management of the Rio Grande water treaty is in the hands of the International Boundary and Water Commission, based in the desert cities of Juarez and El Paso, a stone's throw from each other on the river.¶ Manuel Ybarra, head of international affairs for the commission's U.S. office, said cooperation has improved since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994. Before then, "our relationship with Mexico was pretty much territorial. In that atmosphere, it was difficult to have a strong international management system."

2AC Heavy Metal Add-on

A. Nano in Latin America Solves Heavy Metal Removal

Singer et al 07

Singer-director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, codirector of the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health; Daar-codirector of the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health; Buentello-Researcher and graduate student at University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and the Canadian Program in Genomics and Global Health (Peter A., Abdallah S., Fabio S., “Harnessing Nanotechnology to Improve Global Equity”, 2007, http://www.issues.org/21.4/singer.html//VS)

Water treatment and remediation. One-sixth of the world’s population lacks access to safe water supplies; one-third of the population of rural areas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has no clean water; and 2 million children die each year from water-related diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and schistosomiasis. Nanotechnology can provide inexpensive, portable, and easily cleaned systems that purify, detoxify, and desalinate water more efficiently than do conventional bacterial and viral filters. Nanofilter systems consist of “intelligent” membranes that can be designed to filter out bacteria, viruses, and the great majority of water contaminants. Nanoporous zeolites, attapulgite clays (which can bind large numbers of bacteria and toxins), and nanoporous polymers (which can bind 100,000 times more organic contaminants than can activated carbon) can all be used for water purification.¶ Nanomagnets, also known as “magnetic nanoparticles” and “magnetic nanospheres,” when coated with different compounds that have a selective affinity for diverse contaminating substances, can be used to remove pollutants from water. For example, nanomagnets coated with chitosan, a readily available substance derived from the exoskeleton of crabs and shrimps that is currently used in cosmetics and medications, can be used to remove oil and other organic pollutants from aqueous environments. Brazilian researchers have developed superparamagnetic nanoparticles that, coated with polymers, can be spread over a wide area in dustlike form; these modified nanomagnets would readily bind to the pollutant and could then be recovered with a magnetic pump. Because of the size of the nanoparticles and their high affinity for the contaminating agents, almost 100 percent of the pollutant would be removed. Finally, the magnetic nanoparticles and the polluting agents would be separated, allowing for the reuse of the magnetic nanoparticles and for the recycling of the pollutants. Also, magnetite nanoparticles combined with citric acid, which binds metallic ions with high affinity, can be used to remove heavy metals from soil and water.

2AC Aquifers Add-on

Water problems now – lack of sanitation, poor water quality, pollution in lakes and aquifers
World Water Council 06 - an international organization that works towards increasing global awareness on water issues (“Water Problems in Latin America”, 4^th World Water Forum, 2006, http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/fileadmin/wwc/News/WWC_News/water_problems_22.03.04.pdf)//BD

77 million people lack access to safe water: The region has made tremendous advances in recent ¶ decades. The percentage of people in Latin America and the Caribbean with direct access to water has ¶ increased from 33 percent of the population in 1960 to 85 percent by 2000. This still leaves 77 million ¶ people without a water connection in their homes – 51 million rural residents and 26 million urban ¶ ones. ¶ 100 million people lack access to sanitation: Between 1960 and 2000, the percentage of people in ¶ Latin American and the Caribbean connected to sanitation services grew from 14 percent of 49 percent ¶ of the population. This still leaves an estimated 256 million people dependent on latrines and septic ¶ tanks only, and 100 million people with absolutely no access to any safe sanitation. ¶ Lack of treatment of sanitation wastes: Sewage from less than 14 percent of houses is treated at ¶ sanitation plants, greatly increasing the chances of ecological damages “down the line,” as the ¶ untreated sewage enters rivers, lakes, underground aquifers and oceans. ¶ Large water pricing inequality: In the year 2000, statistics show that poor people paid between 1.5 ¶ and 2.8 times more for their water than non-poor families, in real terms, and a much higher percentage ¶ of their income for water. The quality of the water received by the poor was also much worse, ¶ increasing the danger that the diarrheal diseases that could kill them would hit their children. ¶ Major financial constraints in rich, middle income and poor Western Hemispheric nations alike ¶ restrict the abilities of national and local governments to address all of their water needs ¶ simultaneously, forcing hard choices that must involve “stakeholders,” that is, those who use the water ¶ for drinking, sanitation, industry and agriculture. Some alternatives have included the establishment of solidarity funds, public-private partnerships, community participation and other alternative financial ¶ schemes. Water Problems in Latin America ¶ Page 2¶ Ground water: Major aquifers in the western United States, Mexico and in South America are being ¶ threatened by overexploitation and pollution. In South America, 40-60 percent of water comes from ¶ aquifers that are facing ever-growing pollution from over-mining and agriculture. In Mexico, 102 of ¶ the nation’s 653 aquifers are overused, the main source of water for 65 percent of the population. In ¶ some areas, farmers have had to switch from water-intensive cotton to less profitable grain crops used ¶ to feed cattle, because the aquifers no longer produced sufficient water to grow cotton. ¶ Lakes and River Pollution – Many major lakes and river basins from North to South America are ¶ under great strain from growing populations and decades of agricultural and industrial run-off, ¶ including the Great Lakes, Lake Chapala in Mexico

2AC Run-off Add-on

A. Failure to Clean Water Causes Dangerous Runoff, Aquifer and Ocean Pollution

World Water Council 06 - an international organization that works towards increasing global awareness on water issues (“Water Problems in Latin America”, 4^th World Water Forum, 2006, http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/fileadmin/wwc/News/WWC_News/water_problems_22.03.04.pdf)//BD

77 million people lack access to safe water: The region has made tremendous advances in recent ¶ decades. The percentage of people in Latin America and the Caribbean with direct access to water has ¶ increased from 33 percent of the population in 1960 to 85 percent by 2000. This still leaves 77 million ¶ people without a water connection in their homes – 51 million rural residents and 26 million urban ¶ ones. ¶ 100 million people lack access to sanitation: Between 1960 and 2000, the percentage of people in ¶ Latin American and the Caribbean connected to sanitation services grew from 14 percent of 49 percent ¶ of the population. This still leaves an estimated 256 million people dependent on latrines and septic ¶ tanks only, and 100 million people with absolutely no access to any safe sanitation. ¶ Lack of treatment of sanitation wastes: Sewage from less than 14 percent of houses is treated at ¶ sanitation plants, greatly increasing the chances of ecological damages “down the line,” as the ¶ untreated sewage enters rivers, lakes, underground aquifers and oceans. ¶ Large water pricing inequality: In the year 2000, statistics show that poor people paid between 1.5 ¶ and 2.8 times more for their water than non-poor families, in real terms, and a much higher percentage ¶ of their income for water. The quality of the water received by the poor was also much worse, ¶ increasing the danger that the diarrheal diseases that could kill them would hit their children. ¶ Major financial constraints in rich, middle income and poor Western Hemispheric nations alike ¶ restrict the abilities of national and local governments to address all of their water needs ¶ simultaneously, forcing hard choices that must involve “stakeholders,” that is, those who use the water ¶ for drinking, sanitation, industry and agriculture. Some alternatives have included the establishment of solidarity funds, public-private partnerships, community participation and other alternative financial ¶ schemes. Water Problems in Latin America ¶ Page 2¶ Ground water: Major aquifers in the western United States, Mexico and in South America are being ¶ threatened by overexploitation and pollution. In South America, 40-60 percent of water comes from ¶ aquifers that are facing ever-growing pollution from over-mining and agriculture. In Mexico, 102 of ¶ the nation’s 653 aquifers are overused, the main source of water for 65 percent of the population. In ¶ some areas, farmers have had to switch from water-intensive cotton to less profitable grain crops used ¶ to feed cattle, because the aquifers no longer produced sufficient water to grow cotton. ¶ Lakes and River Pollution – Many major lakes and river basins from North to South America are ¶ under great strain from growing populations and decades of agricultural and industrial run-off, ¶ including the Great Lakes, Lake Chapala in Mexico

B. Extinction
Coyne and Hoekstra 7 – *professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, **Associate Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University (Jerry and Hopi, The New Republic, “The Greatest Dying,” 9/24, http://www.truthout.org/article/jerry-coyne-and-hopi-e-hoekstra-the-greatest-dying)

  

  But it isn't just the destruction of the rainforests that should trouble us. Healthy ecosystems the world over provide hidden services like waste disposal, nutrient cycling, soil formation, water purification, and oxygen production. Such services are best rendered by ecosystems that are diverse. Yet, through both intention and accident, humans have introduced exotic species that turn biodiversity into monoculture. Fast-growing zebra mussels, for example, have outcompeted more than 15 species of native mussels in North America's Great Lakes and have damaged harbors and water-treatment plants. Native prairies are becoming dominated by single species (often genetically homogenous) of corn or wheat. Thanks to these developments, soils will erode and become unproductive – which, along with temperature change, will diminish agricultural yields. Meanwhile, with increased pollution and runoff, as well as reduced forest cover, ecosystems will no longer be able to purify water; and a shortage of clean water spells disaster. In many ways, oceans are the most vulnerable areas of all. As overfishing eliminates major predators, while polluted and warming waters kill off phytoplankton, the intricate aquatic food web could collapse from both sides. Fish, on which so many humans depend, will be a fond memory. As phytoplankton vanish, so does the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. (Half of the oxygen we breathe is made by phytoplankton, with the rest coming from land plants.) Species extinction is also imperiling coral reefs – a major problem since these reefs have far more than recreational value: They provide tremendous amounts of food for human populations and buffer coastlines against erosion. In fact, the global value of "hidden" services provided by ecosystems – those services, like waste disposal, that aren't bought and sold in the marketplace – has been estimated to be as much as $50 trillion per year, roughly equal to the gross domestic product of all countries combined. And that doesn't include tangible goods like fish and timber. Life as we know it would be impossible if ecosystems collapsed. Yet that is where we're heading if species extinction continues at its current pace. Extinction also has a huge impact on medicine. Who really cares if, say, a worm in the remote swamps of French Guiana goes extinct? Well, those who suffer from cardiovascular disease. The recent discovery of a rare South American leech has led to the isolation of a powerful enzyme that, unlike other anticoagulants, not only prevents blood from clotting but also dissolves existing clots. And it's not just this one species of worm: Its wriggly relatives have evolved other biomedically valuable proteins, including antistatin (a potential anticancer agent), decorsin and ornatin (platelet aggregation inhibitors), and hirudin (another anticoagulant). Plants, too, are pharmaceutical gold mines. The bark of trees, for example, has given us quinine (the first cure for malaria), taxol (a drug highly effective against ovarian and breast cancer), and aspirin. More than a quarter of the medicines on our pharmacy shelves were originally derived from plants. The sap of the Madagascar periwinkle contains more than 70 useful alkaloids, including vincristine, a powerful anticancer drug that saved the life of one of our friends. Of the roughly 250,000 plant species on Earth, fewer than 5 percent have been screened for pharmaceutical properties. Who knows what life-saving drugs remain to be discovered? Given current extinction rates, it's estimated that we're losing one valuable drug every two years. Our arguments so far have tacitly assumed that species are worth saving only in proportion to their economic value and their effects on our quality of life, an attitude that is strongly ingrained, especially in Americans. That is why conservationists always base their case on an economic calculus. But we biologists know in our hearts that there are deeper and equally compelling reasons to worry about the loss of biodiversity: namely, simple morality and intellectual values that transcend pecuniary interests. What, for example, gives us the right to destroy other creatures? And what could be more thrilling than looking around us, seeing that we are surrounded by our evolutionary cousins, and realizing that we all got here by the same simple process of natural selection? To biologists, and potentially everyone else, apprehending the genetic kinship and common origin of all species is a spiritual experience – not necessarily religious, but spiritual nonetheless, for it stirs the soul. But, whether or not one is moved by such concerns, it is certain that our future is bleak if we do nothing to stem this sixth extinction. We are creating a world in which exotic diseases flourish but natural medicinal cures are lost; a world in which carbon waste accumulates while food sources dwindle; a world of sweltering heat, failing crops, and impure water. In the end, we must accept the possibility that we ourselves are not immune to extinction. Or, if we survive, perhaps only a few of us will remain, scratching out a grubby existence on a devastated planet. Global warming will seem like a secondary problem when humanity finally faces the consequences of what we have done to nature: not just another Great Dying, but perhaps the greatest dying of them all.

2AC Renewable Energy Add-on

A) Mexico Nano is a CRITICAL model for Global renewable energy development – integration is key

Nanoforumeula 2k13

(NanoforumEULA is a project funded by the European Commission as a part of the

Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development., “Sector Diagnosis of Nanotechnology in Mexico,” pg online @ http://www.utwente.nl/mesaplus/nanoforumeula/nanotechnology%20in%20Mexico/nanoforumeula_sector_diagnosis.pdf //um-ef)

4. COMPETITIVE AREAS OF MEXICO IN NANOTECHNOLOGY The most important advantages for investing and making nanoscience in Mexico are the availability of natural resources and human resources. There are some groups within the country that are internationally competitive, and there are other groups that are potentially competitive. However, these groups need to interact with each other and form a network to really achieve a real competitive advantage. The availability of minerals, such as silver, makes it very feasible to have applications of silver nanoparticles as bactericides, for example. Human resources, and in particular, students, have a good preparation, and should be encouraged to collaborate in other countries to gain more experience and knowledge. The demographic growth in Latin America and in particular in Mexico, opens the a big market for housing. Improving the quality of materials (thermally efficient concrete, UV absorber coatings and paints, water filters, etc) is one big market in Mexico that could also be applied worldwide. The research and study of low cost- efficient housing could be a big opportunity for European enterprises. Latin American and Mexican geographic orientation is especially favorable for using renewable energies such as solar cells and wind-powered energy. Seeking more efficient clean sources of energies is of global interest, and a collaborative research could lead to a solution to this problem.