VOA慢速英语2010-Development Report - Water Shortages Cont

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The lack of clean drinking water is a major problem worldwide. The World Health Organization says more than one billion people live in areas where renewable water resources are not available. The problem is especially serious in Asia and the Pacific. A United Nations report says water availability in that area is the second lowest in the world, after Africa.

Nearly seven hundred thousand people in Asia and the Pacific lack safe drinking water. The U.N. report notes that the world's poorest countries are also the ones that use the most water for agriculture. Agriculture uses about eighty percent of the water in the Asia-Pacific area. There has also been an increase in water used for industry. China and India more than tripled¹ their industrial water use between nineteen ninety-two and two thousand two.

The lack of clean drinking water around the world forces millions of people to drink unsafe water. This leads to an increase in diseases like diarrhea, the second leading cause of death in children under five. Floods, droughts, pollution and climate change have created even more problems.

A boy carries a pot of water at Siddharth Nagar neighborhood in Mumbai, India

The Millennium² Development Goals for two thousand fifteen call for a fifty percent decrease in the number of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation³.

Scientists, governments and aid organizations around the world are increasing their efforts to meet these goals. Still the U.N. says there is much work to be done. During its yearly World Water Day observance last month it called on the international community to work together to solve the water crisis⁴. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are doing just that.

The American and South Korean researchers are investigating a new technology for turning sea water into drinking water. The new technology is called ion concentration polarization. The process uses electricity to help separate electrically charged salt particles from water to make it drinkable.

The researchers tested their desalination⁵ process on a computer chip the size of a postage stamp. The chip removed ninety-nine percent of the salt and other harmful substances from water samples. So far the method purifies⁶ only small amounts of water. But the researchers say it may someday be available as a personal water purification⁷ product.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.
 

1 tripled   

v.（使）增至三倍( triple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The enemy tripled his strength. 敌军把兵力增加到原来的三倍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He tripled his income. 他使他的收入增加两倍[增至三倍]。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

3 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

4 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

5 desalination   

n.脱盐(作用)

参考例句：

• Crops can be grown on this land after desalination. 这片土地经过脱盐就可以种植庄稼了。
• One source is by desalination-taking the salt out of salt water to make it drinkable. 淡水的来源之一是使水淡化--把含盐的水中的盐份去掉，使之能够饮用。

6 purifies   

使纯净，使洁净( purify的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Use ampoule, antiseptic, calms sebaceous secretions, soothes irritations and purifies the skins. 采用特别针对性的精华素令皮肤有消炎杀菌，净化及平衡皮脂分泌，回复幼嫩肌肤。
• Repentance purifies the mind;a purified mind is free of worry. 忏悔则清净，清净则能去除烦恼。

7 purification   

n.纯化，净化；提纯

参考例句：

• The water goes through three stages of purification. 这水经过 3 个步骤的净化。
• -- Or a polluted soul towards their purification? —或者说，一个亵渎的灵魂能够净化他人吗？ 来自英汉文学 - 红字