【英译汉必译题】
This week and next, governments, international agencies and nongovernmental organizations are gathering in Mexico City at the World Water Forum to discuss the legacy of global Mulhollandism in water - and to chart a new course.
They could hardly have chosen a better location. Water is being pumped out of the aquifer on which Mexico City stands at twice the rate of replenishment. The result: the city is subsiding at the rate of about half a meter every decade. You can see the consequences in the cracked cathedrals, the tilting Palace of Arts and the broken water and sewerage pipes.
Every region of the world has its own variant of the water crisis story. The mining of groundwaters for irrigation has lowered the water table in parts of India and Pakistan by 30 meters in the past three decades. As water goes down, the cost of pumping goes up, undermining the livelihoods of poor farmers.
What is driving the global water crisis? Physical availability is part of the problem. Unlike oil or coal, water is an infinitely renewable resource, but it is available in a finite quantity. With water use increasing at twice the rate of population growth, the amount available per person is shrinking - especially in some of the poorest countries.
Challenging as physical scarcity may be in some countries, the real problems in water go deeper. The 20th-century model for water management was based on a simple idea: that water is an infinitely available free resource to be exploited, dammed or diverted without reference to scarcity or sustainability.
Across the world, water-based ecological systems - rivers, lakes and watersheds - have been taken beyond the frontiers of ecological sustainability by policy makers who have turned a blind eye to the consequences of over- exploitation.
We need a new model of water management for the 21st century. What does that mean? For starters, we have to stop using water like there"s no tomorrow - and that means using it more efficiently at levels that do not destroy our environment. The buzz- phrase at the Mexico Water forum is "integrated water resource management." What it means is that governments need to manage the private demand of different users and manage this precious resource in the public interest.
【参考译文】
从本周直到下周，各国政府、国际机构和非政府组织齐聚墨西哥城，参与世界水论坛的召开，讨论全球形式化治水的遗留问题，并为此制定新的解决方案。
这里作为论坛的举办地点再合适不过了。从墨西哥城基下的土层中，地下水正被源源不断地抽取出来，而补给同等水量需要花两倍的时间。这导致墨西哥城的不断下沉，速度约为每年0.05米。城市设施由此而受到破坏，随处可见布满裂纹的教堂，摇摇欲坠的美术馆和破裂的供排水管道。
世界各地水危机的形式各不相同。为了灌溉而对地下水进行开采，让印度和巴基斯坦部分地区的地下水位30年来下降了30米。随着水位的下降，抽水的成本也在上升，贫困农民的生计更加艰难。
是什么促使了全球水危机的发生?水的便于取用是一个方面。不同于石油和煤炭，水可以被无限循环再生，但是可供取用的水资源是有限的。全球用水量正以两倍于人口增长率的速度持续增长，人均水资源占有量也在缩减。在那些特别贫困的国家，这一问题尤其突出。
水资源的短缺可能让某些国家难于对付，真正的治水难题却有着更深刻的背景。20世纪的水资源管理模型源于一种简单观念：水是一种取之不竭的资源。人们可以对它随意取用、截流改道而不必付出成本，也无需考虑水源短缺或是可持续性利用的问题。
世界各地的许多政府决策者忽视了过度开发水资源带来的后果，把依赖水体而存在的生态系统 - 河流，湖泊和分水岭划到了生态环境可持续发展的体系之外。
21世纪需要新的水资源管理模型。这意味着什么呢?首先必须停止对水源肆无忌惮的浪费。就是说，我们要更加有效和适度地利用水资源，不对环境造成破坏。“水资源综合管理”是本届水论坛提出的新名词，其涵义是政府需要控制不同个体的用水需求量，并从公共利益出发来管理这种宝贵资源。
（责任编辑:秩名）
