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Water, Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to Drink
By Chhandita Chakravarty, TheWorldJournal.com

Imagine the scenario-Civil war, anarchy and total chaos. People all over the world killing each other for a drop of water. Wars being fought over water may sound too far-fetched today but it will be tomorrow's reality. It is hard to fathom the reason for this huge scarcity of the one of the most abundant elements on earth. After all 'there's so much water' with three fourth of the earth's surface being covered with it. The abundance with which water is present on our blue planet can be understood with this fact-if all the earth's fixed supply of water in all its forms (vapor, liquid, and solid) were evenly spread over its surface as liquid, it would form a layer nearly 3,000 meters deep.

Unfortunately, that is pure hypothesis, an Utopia. The reality is that about 97% of this huge water reserve is found in the oceans and is just too salty for life to survive (discounting marine life). 3% of the remaining fresh water is locked up in glaciers or as underground water, which is too deep to extract. This means that only about 0.003 of Earth's total volume of water is easily available to us in lakes, soil moisture, exploitable ground water, atmospheric water vapor, and streams. But even with this seemingly inadequate water supply, life on earth can survive because of nature's own recycling plant. This natural recycling process works and provides plenty of fresh water as long as we don't pollute the water faster than it is purified, or use up the underground water in a ruthless manner and thus not letting nature do its work. Unfortunately, we are disrupting the natural water cycle by unrestrained exploitation of water.

With ever growing population and industrialization already acute water crises will become more severe. Unpredictable climatic changes brought about by greenhouse effect will disrupt life in a majority of the nations. It's hard to predict where such shifts in climate (specifically rainfall) will occur, but one study suggests that most of the already water starved western USA could experience a 40% to 76% drop in levels of precipitation! The resulting scenario can only be imagined. Various reports from all over the world is saying thing, underground water level is falling at a dangerous pace on every continent across the globe. According to the State of the World report, (published by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute in 1999), the water table under the north China plain dropped by an average of 1.5m (5ft) a year between 1991 and 1996. North China produces nearly 40% of China's grain harvest and with ever increasing water scarcity food shortage seems like an inescapable fact.

Another report by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in Sri Lanka talks about India's grain harvest falling by as much as a quarter in the not too distant future. The water tables almost everywhere in India are falling at between one and three metres (from three to 10ft) each year. According to an IIMI estimate, India is using its underground water reserves at least twice as fast as they are being replenished. The real magnitude of the problem hits home when one realizes that India's population, now almost 1bn people, is expected, on present trends, to grow by a 500m in the next half century! All these reports point to the same future. With around 1,000 tones of water producing one tone of wheat, in a few years, water scarcity will lead to food scarcity.

Water is not inexhaustible. We may dig deeper and deeper in our quest to quench our thirst, we are not solving the problem, we are only aggravating it. The only solution is for us to accept that water is a precious gift. And the only way to survive this crisis is to save water. We have to accept this fact. Small steps can go a long way in making a difference. Saving water is not just a choice. It's a Necessity. And if you still think all the water is for you to spend in any way you want, remember water is the right of every living being on this planet. So next time you waste water think about all the people, animals and plants thirsting for a drop of it. You don't want to be one of them. Do you?

© July 6, 2003

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