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Water Woes 水问题何时了

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Like other nations around the world, fast-paced growth and market competition increase Spain’s anxieties over its most precious natural resource – water  就像全球其他国家一样，快速成长和市场竞争使得西班牙对其最宝贵的天然资源：水，愈来愈感到忧心忡忡

Winter rains refused to fall, shriveling reserves to severe drought levels and prompting a water shipment from France. A month-long downpour rescued Spain a couple months later, ending the drought, but anxieties over water and market pressures now bedevil its most development-hungry regions.

冬雨迟迟不降，使得集水区水量萎缩到极度干旱的程度，也导致西班牙被迫从法国运水救急。所幸数个月后，长达一个月的降雨解救了西班牙，也终结了干旱现象，不过，如今一些最迫切想开发的地区备受水资源和市场竞争压力等焦虑所煎熬。

Spain has fallen into a funk familiar to many communities in the world. It relies on fresh water from a stable and increasingly in-demand source, the vast Ebro River. Tensions are high over access to and the cost of drinkable water – and what jurisdictions or interests have the right to tap into it.

西班牙其实也和全球许多地区一样，陷入了恐慌状态。西班牙仰赖浩瀚的艾伯河提供稳定的淡水来源，而各界对水的需求量愈来愈大。针对饮用水的取得和成本，以及究竟哪些管辖当局或利益团体拥有用水权等问题，紧张状态高涨。

Spain has always known turbulent periods of water shortages, but its predicament these days is built on modern-day ambitions. Agricultural growth and large-scale irrigation, [as well as] golf course and hotel development have soared in the last decade.

西班牙过去一直面临过许多水源短缺的动荡时期，不过，近来的困境却是源自于现代急于开发的野心。农业发展和大型灌溉系统，以及高尔夫球场和饭店等开发，在近十年来巨幅增加。

Economic tensions seep into every conversation about water. Regions throughout Spain are bound to local growers, the indisputable heaviest users of water. And every region, intent on 21st-century growth, is just as keen to diversify its economy and capture the fast profits of Mediterranean tourism.

经济上的紧张状态渗入了任何有关水的谈话中。西班牙各地都备受当地种植者的束缚控制，毋庸置疑地，他们也是用水量最凶的一群。在此同时，任何决心在二十一世纪能有所成长的地区，也希望能使经济更加多元化，并抢搭地中海观光业快速获利的列车。

Last spring, Aragon and Catalan authorities, regional neighbors in Spain, were sniping at each other to lay claim to the rushing waters of the Ebro. Barcelona, a tourism dynamo, wanted the river siphoned to help meet its needs. Zaragoza, which the river runs through, balked at a forced sharing from its river basin. Only the rains stopped the turmoil.

去年春季，西班牙的亚拉冈和加泰隆尼亚这两个属于近邻的当局，不惜相互毁谤攻讦，争相想宣称拥有艾伯河奔腾的水源。观光胜地巴塞隆纳（译注：加泰隆尼亚首府）希望能抽取河水以供应所需水源，但河水流经的萨拉戈萨（译注：亚拉冈首府）则对是否该迫于压力和其他地区分享河域盆地却步不前。所幸天降甘霖让纷争暂时画下句点。

Aragon authorities want to keep the Ebro waters at home to encourage development such as theme parks. It is the kind ofchange that environmentalists deride but government officials see as an economic reality. Catalan had its era of development. Now, they say, it is Aragon’s turn.

亚拉冈当局希望能保有境内的艾伯河水不外流，以鼓励如主题乐园等开发。虽然环保人士对这类改变嗤之以鼻，但政府官员却视之为经济现实。加泰隆尼亚已经享受过开发的荣景，如今，他们表示，该换亚拉冈来掌握契机了。

单词发音

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woe [wo] n. 困难；灾难；不幸; 悲哀；悲痛

shrivel [ˋʃrɪv!] v. 枯萎；干枯；皱缩

downpour [ˋdaʊn͵por] n. 倾盆大雨，豪雨

bedevil [bɪˋdɛv!] v. 困扰; 折磨 to annoy or otherwise cause problems

funk [fʌŋk] n. 惊恐；畏缩 a very unhappy and hopless state

jurisdiction [͵dʒʊrɪsˋdɪkʃən] n. 权力；管辖权; 管辖范围 the authority of an organization to enforce legal decisions within a specified region or area of responsibility

tap [tæp] v. 开发，发掘，利用(资源、形势)

turbulent [ˋtɝbjələnt] adj. 动荡的；混乱的

irrigation [͵ɪrəˋgeʃən] n. 灌溉 a man-made method of supplying land with water so that plants, especially crops, will grow

seep [sip] v. 渗透; 渗漏

bound [baʊnd] adj.（与…）紧密相连的；（与…）密切相关的；（同…）难以分开的[（+to）]

intent [ɪnˋtɛnt] adj. 专心致志的；坚决要做的[F][（+on/upon）]

keen [kin] adj. 热衷的，深切的; 渴望的，极想的[（+on）][+to-v]

lay claim to 对……提出权利要求 to assert one's right to or ownership of

rushing [ˋrʌʃɪŋ] adj. 急流的，旺盛的

dynamo [ˋdaɪnə͵mo] n. 发电机；电动机

balk at something 对…犹豫,对…迟疑不决 to resist and object to something; to shy away from doing something

balk [bɔk] v. 畏怯，犹豫[（+at）]

basin [ˋbesn] n. 盆地，凹地

turmoil [ˋtɝmɔɪl] n. 骚动；混乱

课文朗读

课文讲解

By all accounts, including Spain’s major farm lobbies farmers use 80 percent of the country’s water resources. Many farmers are blamed for tapping illegal wells in some of the most arid farm regions that allow them to take water for free. By some estimates, there are as many as 1.5 million wells.

无论从任何一方观点来看，就连西班牙主要农业游说团体也不例外，西班牙农家足足使用了全西班牙百分之八十的水资源，很多农家被指责为在一些最干燥缺水的农业区里非法私自凿井取水，并因而得以免费用水。根据一些估计显示，水井高达一百五十万座之多。

Further stretching their resources, farmers are now focused on higher yields in part to answer to globalized competition. Olives were once grown as an arid crop. Today, even olive groves are irrigated to induce more production.

更耗用水源的是，如今农家着重更高的收成量，而部份原因是为了响应愈来愈激化的全球竞争所致。过去橄榄一度被当作耐干旱植物来种植，但如今甚至连橄榄树欉都因为要提高产量而施以灌溉。

Urban consumers – and Spain enjoys good citizen response to water cutbacks – pay for their water and are increasingly online to receive water from desalination plants, a dependable water supply. Water consumption experts point out that residential and industrial users, including hotels and golf courses, see desalinated water as a reasonable option and have been willing to pay the price.

西班牙都会区消费者必须付费才能用水──而西班牙对节约用水所实行的措施，民众的配合度十分良好，此外，都会居民的用水也有愈来愈多是取自海水淡化厂这个可靠的水供应来源。水消耗专家指出，家庭和包括饭店及高尔夫球场等工业使用者，均视淡化海水为合理的替代选择，也愿意为之付费。

Critics believe economic favoritism has allowed the farm industry to refuse desalinated water and continue to tap illegal wells. The political cost of forcing farmers to pay, by many accounts, is deemed too high. “Nobody has even been able to confront the farmers,” said one analyst.

批评家认为，经济偏袒主义容许农业界拒绝淡化海水，并持续非法从井里汲水。不过，在许多人眼中，若是迫使农民为用水付费，这样做的政治成本代价将太过高昂。一位分析家便说，「从来没有人能起来对抗农民。」

Water experts said Spain is now in the middle of rethinking its water policy and trying to divine how to use both desalination and water transfer from the Ebro to coordinate equitable access to water.

水专家表示，西班牙如今正重新审视其水政策，并试图找到同时使用淡化海水和艾伯河水源来公平处理用水的方法。

“The drought actually has been helpful,” said Damia Barcelo, director of a Catalan-based water institute. “There’s a recognition that we can’t talk about one source or one solution anymore,”

加泰隆尼亚一家水研究机构的主任达米亚．巴塞罗表示，「干旱事实上还成了一种助力，因为它让大家认知到，我们无法再光只谈一种资源，或一种解决之道而已。」

−by Christine Spolar

单词发音

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by all accounts 根据各种流传的说法；从各方面来说; 据说; 根据报导 from all the reports [that are available]; according to what everyone is saying

lobby [ˋlɑbɪ] n.（对议员施加压力的）院外游说团 a group of people who try to persuade the government to take action that is to their advantage

arid [ˋærɪd] adj. 干旱的；干燥的；不毛的

stretch [strɛtʃ] v. 耗尽，竭尽(财力或物力)

cutback [ˋkʌt͵bæk] n. 减少; 削减，缩减

online [ˋɑn͵laɪn] adj. 进行中的; 进展中的; 准备就绪的 being in progress now; referring to something that is in progress or becoming active

desalination plant 海水淡化厂 a factory that removes salt from seawater in order to produce drinkable water

desalination [di͵sæləˋneʃən] n.【化】去盐作用

favoritism [ˋfevərɪt͵ɪzəm] n. 不公平, 偏袒

confront [kənˋfrʌnt] v. 勇敢地面对；正视；对抗

divine [dəˋvaɪn] v.（凭直觉）发现 to discover something

recognition [͵rɛkəgˋnɪʃən] n. 承认; 接受; 理解

单词发音

Vocabulary Focus

drought [draʊt] n. 干旱 a long period when there is little or no rain in a region

predicament [͵prɪˋdɪkəmənt] n. 尴尬的处境，困境；危境 an unpleasant situation which is difficult to get out of

indisputable [͵ɪndɪˋspjutəb!] adj. 不容置疑的; 无可否认的 true, and impossible to deny

snipe [snaɪp] v. 诽谤，中伤[（+at）] to criticize someone unpleasantly; to make petty complaints attacking someone or something

siphon [ˋsaɪfən] v. 用虹吸管吸出（或输送）；抽取，分出[（+off/out）] to transfer liquid through a tube from one source into another on a lower level by the force of suction

deride [dɪˋraɪd] v. 嘲笑；嘲弄 to laugh at someone or something in a way which shows you think they are ridiculous or of no value

answer to 符合; 响应 to respond to someone or something

equitable [ˋɛkwɪtəb!] adj. 公平的；公正的 fair and reasonable; treating everyone in the same way

Water mismanagement in Spain

Desalination in Spain - ICEX