2001年6月英语四级 - 阅读理解C

Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world's population is expected to double in the next 50 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a widespread water crisis.
人类使用的水不到全世界可用水量的一半。然而，短水和干旱的发生正在一些地区造成饥荒和苦难，工业和农业副产品正在污染供水。由于世界人口预计将在未来50年翻一番，许多专家认为我们正处于大范围水危机的边缘。

But that doesn't have to be the outcome. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world-if we start valuing water more than we have in the past. Just as we began to appreciate petroleum more after the 1970s oil crises, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economic perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a virtually free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want.
但这不一定是结果。如果我们开始比过去更加重视水资源，那么水资源短缺就不必困扰世界。正如我们在20世纪70年代石油危机后开始更重视石油一样，今天我们必须开始从新的经济角度看待水。我们再也不能把水视为一种几乎免费的资源，我们可以随心所欲地使用它。

Instead, for all uses except the domestic demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its actual value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs.
相反，对于除国内穷人需求外的所有用途，政府都应该为水定价，以反映其实际价值。这意味着要对水本身以及供水成本收取费用。

Governments should also protect this resource by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound ways. For example, often the cheapest way to provide irrigation water in the dry tropics is through small-scale projects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions and pumping it to nearby cropland.
各国政府还应通过以更经济、更环保的方式提供水来保护这一资源。例如，通常干旱热带地区提供灌溉水最便宜的方式是通过小规模项目获得的，例如在洼地收集降雨并将其泵送到附近的农田。

No matter what steps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their institutional and legal approaches to water use. Rather than spread control among hundreds or even thousands of local, regional, and national agencies that watch various aspects of water use, countries should set up central authorities to coordinate water policy.
无论政府采取什么措施来更有效地提供水，他们都必须改变用水的制度和法律方法。各国不应将控制权分散在数百甚至数千个负责监督用水各个方面的地方、区域和国家机构之间，而应设立中央机构来协调水政策。