时间:2019-02-05 作者:英语课 分类:VOA常速英语2007年(十二月)


英语课
By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
11 December 2007


The Asian Development Bank says that governments in the region need to improve the management of water resources to avoid a crisis in water security. Claudia Blume reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.


The Asian Development Bank says rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization in the region - as well as climate change - will test the region's water management skills.


K.E. Seetharam, a senior water specialist at the ADB, says the major worry is not scarcity 1 of water, but water management.


Wastewater from cities is often discharged into rivers and lakes without being treated. Water supply is unreliable and does not always reach every citizen. A lot of water is lost through leakages 2.


Seetharam says most of the problems are due to poor management. In many places, water supply and waste management is not run as a professional business but as a free service of the municipality.


"It's basically a vicious cycle of low quality service, therefore low maintenance of facilities, therefore very low tariffs 4 being paid, and so very low motivational staff," said Seetharam. "Very low motivated staff because they don't have funds and they don't get good assets to provide for. The services are so bad so people don't want to pay for it - so it goes back."


He says governments should set up transparent 5 tariff 3 systems. He believes the supply of drinking water and treatment of wastewater need to be run as commercial ventures that are accountable to its customers.


He says some cities in Asia have already made vast improvements, such as the Philippines' capital Manila.


"Ten years ago the city did not have proper water supply, only for a couple of hours a day, leakages were about 70 percent," said Seetharam. "And today, nearly half the city already has 24-hour water supply and their leakages is only about 20 percent. They are doing a brilliant job."


He says Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh is another success story. In the past four years, the city's water authority managed to drastically reduce the amount of water leakages, from 90 percent of the water supply to less than ten percent.


Experts are not worried that the region will run out of water in the future.


"Today we are in such an advanced stage that we could treat wastewater into potable water," he said. "We could treat seawater into potable water. So we have all the technologies available to take back water to clean water."


Seetharam says the key to improving access to clean water is changing the perception of many people in Asia that water should be available for free.




n.缺乏,不足,萧条
  • The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
  • The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。
泄露; 漏( leakage的名词复数 ); 漏出; 漏出物; 渗漏物
  • We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injection into it. 我们就可以看到,这个流量既有漏出的又有注入的。
  • We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injections into it. 我们就可以看到,这个流量是既有漏出的又有注入的。
n.关税,税率;(旅馆、饭店等)价目表,收费表
  • There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
  • The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。
关税制度; 关税( tariff的名词复数 ); 关税表; (旅馆或饭店等的)收费表; 量刑标准
  • British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
  • The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的
  • The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明,可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
  • The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。
学英语单词
acoustic homing system
address matcher circuit
alphanumeric program
Anicetus
antirheumatoid drug
apparent turbulent stress tensor
aseptic filling
astronomic transit
atlee
automated batch mixing
Bac Giang, Tinh
bioconcentration
bistable polarization
branch coverage testing
brems
bus hut
cant rail
checking book
chrysanthemum leucanthemums
close-to-nature forestry
cobalt slass
coffee black beans
coodes
crested penguins
crystal-controlled
customer evaluation
daryosphere
diffused base transistor
distributed element
ditylenchus
externally-imposed
flower primordia
foresworn
full crystal
gateway charge
geographical classification of 8oils
guardlike
heteromorphic chromosomes
heterosperminous hybridization
histoimmunological
historical jurisprudence
horn cleat
hydroaluminations
iraqgates
knife tool
laughland
lent an ear to
liasons
limit of aperidicity
local buffer storage
lomasome
longitudinal dispersion
low transmission
mazatzal pk.
medical nomenclature
microcode assembler
mild-mannered
mine swept route
Mugila, Mts.
multispectral satellite data
noboes
obv
Osborne, L.
Paranari
patently
payment notice
Perisporiales
pick his steps
price plan
primary vaccination
protocollyris sauteri
pterygomandibular
Puusepp's reflex
raddicle
read-message
real-time data structure
recosting
reverse mottle
RNA probe
rosin adduct
scutellarin
segmented address space
spread for
sudor anglicus
Symes
symmetric game
tank clean-out opening
televisuality
the eight manifestations of infantile convulsion
theophanous
tisiyeh (tasiyeh)
torpedo bombardment aeroplane
tribenzylethyltin
trickle-irrigated
triphenoxazin
two for one twister
unquenches
versche
vica
wear resistant alloy steel
widely spaced stanchions
zapanta