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水资源不足影响世界人口

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People around the world are worried that water for drinking, cooking and cleaning is getting harder to find.

世界各地的人们担心,饮用水、烹饪用水和清洁用水越来越难获取。

Many believe changes in their climate are affecting their ability to get water.

许多人认为,气候变化正在影响他们获取水的能力。

The problem exists in places such as Corning, California; Lima, Peru; Jakarta, Indonesia; Ras El Ma, Morocco; Makueni County, Kenya, and Bawal, India.

美国加利福尼亚州的康宁、秘鲁的利马、印度尼西亚的雅加达、摩洛哥的拉斯艾玛(Ras El Ma)、肯尼亚的马库埃尼郡和印度的巴瓦尔等地都存在这一问题。

The United Nations says 2.2 billion people worldwide do not have safely managed drinking water.

联合国称,全球有22亿人无法获得安全管理的饮用水。

In Lima, Justina Flores lives with no running water.

在利马,贾斯蒂娜·弗洛雷斯的生活中没有自来水。

She is a 50-year-old grandmother who gets water from the government.

她是一位50岁的祖母,她依靠政府获水。

With the supply, she washes her family's clothing by hand and then uses what is left to bathe her dog.

有了这些水,她可以用手洗一家人的衣服,然后用剩下的水给狗洗澡。

The government gives water to 1.5 million of the country's poorest people.

秘鲁政府向本国最贫穷的150万人供水。

Big water trucks make their way up hills to get to places where people need it.

大型运水车翻山越岭,将水运到人们需要的地方。

Flores tries to limit her water use.

弗洛雷斯试图节省用水量。

She owns a washing machine, but it uses too much water.

她有一台洗衣机,但耗水量太大。

By washing clothes by hand, she saves about 45 liters.

通过手洗衣服,她可以节省大约45升水。

The family gets 3,000 liters per week.

她家每周获取的水量为3000升。

Official information says, in wealthier areas with running water, families use an average of almost 12,000 liters per week.

官方资料显示,在有自来水的富裕地区,家庭平均每周用水量接近12000 升。

Flores has worked in some of those homes.

弗洛雷斯曾在其中一些家庭工作过。

She said, there, people can take a bath every day.

她说,那里的人们每天都可以洗澡。

She said in her area of Lima, people can only wash themselves two times per week.

她说,在利马她所在的区域,人们每周只能洗两次澡。

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, people say it is difficult to get clean water.

在印度尼西亚首都雅加达,人们说很难获得干净的水。

Devi Putri Eka Sari is 37. She has three children.

德维·普特丽·埃卡·萨里(Devi Putri Eka Sari)今年 37 岁。她有三个孩子。

Since she was a girl, she has had to purchase water from sellers who work in her low-income neighborhood.

从她孩时起,她就不得不从自己所在的低收入社区的水贩那里买水。

While the government installed water pipes and pumps, the water does not always come.

虽然政府安装了水管和水泵,但并不是每次都有水。

Sari said, if the water did flow, she is not sure she would drink it.

萨里说,即使有水,她也不确定自己会不会喝。

"It's not healthy," she said.

她说:“这水不健康。”

"It's filled with bacteria that will make you sick."

“里面都是细菌,会让人生病。”

She said it also smells like chemicals.

她说,水里闻起来还有化学品的味道。

The World Health Organization says she is right.

世界卫生组织的数据表明她是对的。

Seven of 10 households in Indonesia use drinking water that contains the dangerous bacteria known as E. coli.

在印度尼西亚,每10户家庭中就有7户使用含有危险细菌——大肠杆菌的饮用水。

As a result, she and many other Indonesians have been buying water all their lives.

因此,她和许多印尼人一辈子都在买水。

They either use large, refillable containers or single-use bottles.

他们要么使用大型的可重复灌装的容器装水,要么使用一次性瓶子。

This creates a lot of waste.

这产生了大量的垃圾。

"It's the option we have," she said.

她说:“这是我们仅有的选择。”

In the North African country of Morocco, a river flows next to the farm where Mimoun Nadori's family has grown fruits and vegetables for a long time.

在北非国家摩洛哥,米蒙·纳多里的农场旁流淌着一条河,他家在这里种植水果和蔬菜已经有很长时间了。

But when he tastes the water from the river today, he makes a bad face.

但是,今天他尝到河水的味道时,脸色变得很难看。

The water is salty. He said it was not that way in the past.

水是咸的。他说过去不是这样的。

Back then, as he said: "Everything was green. We drank from the river and washed with the river. We made a life with it."

他说,那时“一切都是绿色的。我们喝河水,用河水洗衣服。我们与河共生。”

His land is along the Moulouya River, which does not flow like it did in the past.

他的土地位于穆卢耶河沿岸,而穆卢耶河已不再像过去那样奔流不息。

Dams were built and water is pumped upstream.

水坝已经建成,水被抽到上游。

That means Nadori's land gets less water.

这意味着纳多里的土地得到的水越来越少。

The water hardly moves, which permits seawater to come in.

河水几乎不流动,海水因此流入。

Nadori now has to bring water in for the chickens he raises.

纳多里现在不得不为他养的鸡取水。

He once raised cows, but he discovered the cows were drinking from the tainted water.

他曾经养过牛,但他发现牛喝的是污染水。

The cows died.

牛死了。

He admitted there is more than one reason for the lack of water.

他承认,缺水的原因不止一个。

"We won't lie and say the reason is only humans or drought, it's both," he said.

他说:“我们不会撒谎说缺水只是因为人为或者干旱,其实两者都有。”

"We don't know how to use water and we waste a lot of water."

“我们不知道如何用水,所以浪费了大量的水。”

Fred and Robin Imfeld once had no problem filling their swimming pool and watering the plants at their home in rural California.

弗雷德·伊姆费尔德和罗宾·伊姆费尔德夫妇的家位于加利福尼亚州的乡村,他们曾经毫不费力就能往游泳池注满水和浇灌植物。

But two years ago, their well in the town of Corning went dry.

但两年前,他们位于康宁镇的水井干涸了。

The pool is empty now, and the plants are brown.

现在,游泳池空了,植物也枯了。

Across California, wells have dried up because people use too much water and there is not enough rain to replace what is used.

在整个加利福尼亚,水井干涸的原因是人们用水太多,而雨水不足以补充用水。

The supply of groundwater is low.

地下水供应不足。

The Imfelds want to drill a new, deeper well.

伊姆费尔德夫妇想再打一口更深的井。

But it would cost a lot: $25,000.

但这需要花费很多钱:25000 美元。

Until they can drill the new well, they depend on water from the state.

在打出新井之前,他们只能依靠州政府提供的水。

Two times each month, they receive a water tank that contains almost 10,000 liters.

每个月,他们会两次收到一个水箱,一箱里面有近10000升水。

They use the water to wash themselves, wash dishes and clean their clothes.

他们用这些水洗澡、洗碗和洗衣服。

They get a different shipment of 113 liters of water every two weeks that they use for drinking and cooking.

他们每两周还会收到113升水,用于饮用和做饭。

When they need more water, Imfeld takes all the containers he has to a friend's home a few kilometers away and fills them.

当他们需要更多的水时,伊姆费尔德会把所有的容器带到几公里外的朋友家装水。

He said the worries about water add to the family's personal concerns.

他说,对水的担忧加重了他们一家人的个人担忧。

They are worried all the time about their own lives and the water.

他们无时无刻不在担心自己的生活和用水。

"We're just being emotionally drained," he said.

他说:“我们的情绪都快崩溃了。”

Joyce Mule used to walk two hours each day to find water in Makueni County, Kenya.

在肯尼亚马库埃尼郡,乔伊斯·穆勒(Joyce Mule)以前每天要走两个小时才能找到水。

There are few water pipes in her southeastern village.

她所在的东南部村庄几乎没有水管。

One way to get water is by digging holes in a local riverbed and retrieving the collected water.

一种取水方式是在当地河床上挖洞,然后将收集到的水打捞上来。

But in 2012, she and the others in the village changed to a different method.

但在2012年,她和村里的其他人换了一种方法。

They now catch water that runs off rocks 30 or more meters above the ground.

现在,他们从离地面30多米高的岩石上取水。

The rock catchment method directs the water through a containing wall and smaller rocks that help to clean it.

岩石集水法通过一个围墙和一些较小的岩石引导水流,这些小石头有助于清洁水质。

Eventually the water flows into a pipe and into a large tank that is much closer to the village.

最终,水流进入一根管道,再流入一个离村庄更近的大水箱中。

Her plants and trees are now healthy.

现在,她家的花草树木都很健康。

There is more fruit and cows are producing more milk.

水果更多了,奶牛产奶也更多了。

Her life is better now.

她的生活现在变得更好了。

"We used to think the rocks were worthless," she said.

她说:“我们以前认为这些石头没有用。”

"But now we see the benefits."

“但现在我们看到了它的好处。”

Ramkrishan Malawat is 52.

Ramkrishan Malawat今年52岁。

He remembers the days when people in his village near New Dehli did not have to dig deep wells to get water.

他住在新德里附近的村庄里。他还记得人们不必挖深井取水的日子。

They only needed to walk 10 kilometers to find a fast-flowing river.

只需步行10公里,就能找到一条水流湍急的河流。

Water was no concern.

用水并不是问题。

Now, the river is dry, and the water is more than 70 meters below the ground.

现在,河水干涸,水位低于地面70多米。

We are forced to dig deeper with every passing year," he said.

他说:“我们的井不得不一年比一年挖得更深。”

But he must keep digging in order to get water for his farm – he grows mustard, corn and other grains.

但他必须继续挖,才能为农场取水。他种植芥菜、玉米和其他谷物。

When he does get to the water, it is not as clean.

当他终于挖到水时,水却不那么干净了。

The water contains chemicals from the ground – including fluoride.

水中含有来自地下的化学物质,包括氟。

Drilling for water is common in India.

钻井取水在印度很常见。

The United Nations says India drills and pumps more groundwater than the United States and China combined.

联合国称,印度钻探和抽取的地下水比美国和中国的总和还要多。

There is more need for water as India grows.

随着印度的发展,对水的需求也越来越大。

The Indian population is the world's largest, and it continues to grow.

印度是世界上人口最多的国家,而且还在继续增长。

The people need homes and jobs.

人们需要住房和工作。

Every time a new structure is built, it causes runoff, and less water can seep into the ground.

每当有新建筑建成,就会造成地表径流,渗入地下的水就会减少。

"Water just flows away," Malawat said.

Malawat说:“水就这样流走了”。

He noted that the auto industry is now bigger than farming in the area.

他指出,在该地区,汽车产业的规模已经超过了农业。

"I worry sometimes that in 10 to 15 years, there will be no good water available for farming in my town," he said.

他说:“我有时担心,10到15年后,我所在的小镇将没有好的水用于农业。”

I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Caty Weaver.

丹·弗里德尔与凯蒂·韦弗为您报道。

译文为可可英语翻译,未经授权请勿转载!

重点单词   查看全部解释    
salty ['sɔ:lti]

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adj. 咸的

联想记忆
purchase ['pə:tʃəs]

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vt. 买,购买
n. 购买,购买的物品

 
corn [kɔ:n]

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n. 谷物,小麦,玉米
v. 形成(颗粒状),

 
eventually [i'ventjuəli]

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adv. 终于,最后

 
rural ['ru:rəl]

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adj. 农村的

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replace [ri(:)'pleis]

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vt. 取代,更换,将物品放回原处

 
option ['ɔpʃən]

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n. 选择权,可选物,优先购买权
v. 给予选

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seep [si:p]

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v. 渗出,渗漏 n. 渗漏,小泉,水(油)坑

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tainted ['teintid]

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adj. 污染的;感染的

 
shipment ['ʃipmənt]

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n. 装船,货物,出货

 

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