About SAFFIRE
"The message of the developing world - grappling with
poverty, growing population, increasing urbanization and industrialization - is
clear. Supply of freshwater will be a critical issue in the years to come.
Information, assessment and monitoring of global water resources will be
crucial,"
- Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director, UNEP
Most cities, towns and villages are facing water stress - their
reserves of water is depleting, while the demand for water is increasing. Each
day, they are finding that water is more scarce. Much of the rain that falls on
their catchment areas either evaporates, or becomes run-off as surface water,
with a small percentage that replenishing scarce ground water.
Geology of the catchment areas plays a critical role in ground
water contamination. Contaminated ground water can remain in such areas for days
or even decades, affecting future generations that will increasingly be depend
on ground water.
Water pollution (and as an extension, ground water
contamination) comes from thousands of sources, including siltation, nutrients,
bacteria, oxygen-depleting substances, metals, pesticides, herbicides, toxic
chemicals, and other habitat-altering materials. Much of these sources are
directly related to our daily lifestyle choices and values that we place on the
environment. We need to make ourselves aware of the impact and effects of these
choices and values to water sources, and the environment at large.
Maintaining an adequate supply of usable water is increasingly a
challenge. The demand for water needed to serve agriculture, industry,
sanitation, and domestic consumption increases along with population,
development, and economic growth. Water resources are required for many aspects
of power generation, waste processing, new home construction, new industries and
recreation.
In order to raise awareness of these issues, and build capacity
for integrated and coherent action, SAFFIRE - Strategic Alliance For Freshwater
Information, Resources and Education - was launched. SAFFIRE is an 'umbrella'
initiative that brings together existing initiatives/websites that are working
on water and local environment issues. Each of the participating
websites/institutions have their own individual strengths and unique content
・and SAFFIRE provides a gateway to these resources in a single unified window.
SAFFIRE features direct links to the founding members, but adds
value to its contents by including a common search engine; a pre-designated
keyword jump; e-learning resources; themes/questions/projects common to all
members; participation from other websites/institutions; and other features.
SAFFIRE follows the format of another similar initiative called
EMERALD (Environmental Management Exchange and Resource Alliance for Local
Development) [
http://www.urban-emerald.org ].
