2018年5月翻译资格考试三级笔译模拟题：全球水危机
英译汉
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.
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本周，世界水论坛在墨西哥城开幕，论坛将一直持续到下周。来自政府、国际机构和非政府组织的代表们齐聚一堂，探讨全球用水遗留问题，共商未来用水大计。会议选址墨西哥城再合适不过。墨西哥城地下蓄水层的开采速度是地下水补给速度的两倍，由此造成墨西哥城以 10 年 50 厘米的速度不断下沉，现在，这里的许多教堂出现裂隙，艺术宫日益倾斜，水管和排污管道开裂。
世界上每个地区都面临水危机，只不过表现形式不同而已。在过去 30 年间，印度和巴基斯坦的部分地区大肆开采地下水用于农业灌溉，致使水位下降了 30 米，开采成本随之升高，给当地贫苦农民的生计带来严重影响。
全球水危机的成因是什么?部分原因是实际可用水资源短缺。水不同于石油或煤炭，是一种无限可再生资源，但是可用水资源却十分有限。目前，用水增加速度是人口增速的两倍，人均可用水资源在不断减少，一些最不发达国家尤其如此。
一些国家的实际可用水资源确实存在严重短缺的问题，不过水危机的发生还有其深层次的原因。20 世纪的水资源管理模式存在问题：人们想当然地认为，水资源取之不竭，用之不尽，是一种免费资源，人们用水毫无节制，随意修建水坝或开展调水工程，根本意识不到水资源短缺的问题，也不考虑这种用水模式是否具有可持续性。
世界各地的决策者对过度开采水资源可能产生的后果视而不见、不管不问，现在江河湖泊等水生态系统都遭到严重破坏，可持续性开始受到威胁。
在 21 世纪，我们必须改变这种水资源管理模式。如何加以改变呢?首先，我们必须摒弃这种“有今没明”、短视自利的用水模式，提高用水效率，避免对环境造成破坏。本次墨西哥水论坛的主要议题是“水资源综合管理”，旨在敦促各国政府综合管理不同用水需求，从公共利益出发合理利用宝贵的水资源。
