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<Forum on the Caspian, Aral and Dead Seas-Perspective
of Water Environmental Management and Politics>

<Symposium on the Aral Sea and The Surrounding Region
-Irrigated Agriculture and the Environment>

OPENING ADDRESS

World Lakes in Crisis

Tatsuo Kira
Ex Officio Scientific Committee Member International Lake Environment Committee Foundation

It is a great privilege for me to open this important symposium by speaking on behalf of its local organizer, the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC). ILEC has the aim of promoting environmentally sound management of world lakes and reservoirs as well as sustainable development of their resources. Its activity has been steadily developed during the last decade owing to the cordial support of national and international organizations, including the Prefectural Government of Shiga, National Environment Agency of Japan, UN Environment Programme, UN Center for Regional Development and a number of Japanese private enterprises and citizens.

Among ILEC's main achievements thus far, the compilation of extensive data on the environmental status of world lakes and reservoirs is especially noteworthy in that it revealed the critical situation of world lake environments for the first time in terms of quantitative data. Complete sets of physiographic, limnological and socio-economic data from more than 200 important lakes and reservoirs have been collected and published¹. Additional information on some 600 lakes has also been accumulated.

It became evident from these databases that six major environmental problems are taking place in lakes and reservoirs on all the continents, which are extensively endangering freshwater supply, fisheries, waterborne transportation and other important uses of lakes². The causes, effects and interrelationships of the six problems are summarized in Figure 1.

The population pressure and people's strong desire for improved quality of life in less developed parts of the world have resulted in the overuse of cultivated fields, grazing lands and forests in lakes watersheds, which is in turn causing accelerated soil erosion and rapid siltation, filling and even the disappearance of many lakes. The population explosion and the progress of agricultural, industrial and urban developments have led to a tremendous increase of water consumption to the extent that it affects the natural hydrologic cycle significantly. Uptake of too much water from a lake or its tributary rivers causes the decline of lake water level, particularly under dry climates as typically exemplified by the case of the Aral Sea. Siltation, overuse of water and artificial land filling put together made more than 500 Chinese lakes (larger than 1 km²) disappear during 30 years since 1950³. Owing to the same reasons, eutrophication, acidification and contamination with man-made toxic chemicals have also spread all over the world.

Those processes are not only greatly spoiling both the quantity and quality of freshwater resources in lakes but also cause damage on fisheries and surface transportation. Furthermore, if any of the processes proceeds too far, aquatic ecosystems in lakes will be profoundly degraded and may eventually collapse with the extermination of all aquatic plants and animals. Lake ecosystems are especially rich in endemic species, but are very fragile and intolerant of environmental changes. Valuable endemic species in lakes are now disappearing day by day, mainly because of the environmental degradation and partly due to the intentional or accidental introduction of alien species. Plants and animals in lakes represent one of the most dangerously threatened biota on the earth with the loss of unique gene pool or biodiversity.

This brief review indicates that the degradation of lake environments is an ecological disaster arising from the same conditions which have accelerated tropical forest destruction and desertification. Lake environmental problems are similarly widespread on a global scale. In view of the ever increasing demand for more freshwater and the growing importance of lakes and reservoirs as the stable source of freshwater, the critical situation of world lake environments should properly be placed among the important environmental problems of global scale which must be coped with urgently by international cooperation.

(larger image)
Figure 1:Six major environmental problems in world lakes.

---------------
1.Lake Biwa Research Institute & International Lake Environment Committee (ed.) (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993) Date Book of World Lake Environments - A Survey of the State of World Lakes, Vols. 1-5. International Lake Environment Committee & United Nations Environment Programme, Otsu & Kusatsu, Japan. .

2.Kira, T. (1993) Major environmental problems in world lakes, Mem. Ist. ital. Idrobiol., 52, 1-7

3.Qu, Geping (1990) Opening Address at the 4th International Conference on the Conservation and Management of Lakes "Hangzhou '90".

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