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Water – The Gift of Life
By Gary Girdhari
Guyana Journal, April 2006

I started in the ocean in the crashing swelling waves.
I've flowed in raging rivers carving canyons, cliffs and caves.
You've seen me in the summer raindrops soaking fields of corn,
And wiped me from your window pane upon a frosty morn.

I am just a tiny drop of water, yes it's true,
But though I may be tiny, you just watch what I can do. – Nick Walker

How many Guyanese remember the time when there were latrines overhanging trenches in the countryside? And the water from these trenches used for domestic purposes? Children bathed in this water. Kitchen utensils and clothes were washed with this water. This unsanitary practice was due to the lack of clean water supply in the villages, and resulted in diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea, eczema, skin infections, hookworm, tapeworm, pin worm and round worm infection. Such conditions still prevail in many parts of the poor undeveloped world – the “Turd World”.

The deplorable conditions have remained in varying degrees. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, the 1st World Water Forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco, on March 1997 where it elaborated on the World Water Council’s objective “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level, to facilitate the efficient management and use of water in all its dimensions and on an environmentally sustainable basis.”

This forum was followed by a 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands, in March 2000, which deliberated on the “Water Vision for the Future” and “Framework for Action”, addressing questions about “the state and ownership of water resources, their development potential, management and financing models, and their impact on poverty, social, cultural and economic development and the environment...,” affirming the Ministerial Declaration of “meeting basic water needs, securing food supply, protecting ecosystems, sharing water resources, managing risks, valuing water and governing water wisely as the key challenges for our direct future.”

The 3rd World Water Forum was held in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka, Japan on March 2003, and a 4th World Water Forum was recently concluded in Mexico, March 16-22, 2006 where it was re-emphasized: “The World Water Forum is a World Water Council (WWC) initiative that aims to raise awareness on water issues all over the world. As the main international event on water, it seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to influence water policy making at a global level, thus assuring better living standards for people all over the world and a more responsible social behaviour towards water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development,” the catchy theme being “Local Actions for a Global Challenge.”

AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CENTURY, the United Nations pledged in a Declaration to "halve, by the year 2015... the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water". Again in September 2002, the Johannesburg World Summit of Sustainable Development Declaration proposed to halve the proportion of people with no basic sanitation by 2015. Water, of course, is key in attaining this goal. With the outbreak of various flu, including the bird flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has strongly recommended regular washing of hands as a protective measure. How is this possible in places where there is no clean water? It’s not!

What seems quite illuminating is the real fact of the dismal situation globally. In rich countries and where affluence dominates in other countries there is a seeming neglect – sometimes deliberate and otherwise benign – in poverty stricken enclaves. But the colossal scale of poverty, with insufficient food, lack of clean water, diseases (that are preventable), and other elementary basics of decent civilized life, are growing rather than diminishing. The rich are getting richer, (see “A Social ‘Time Bomb”, Newsweek, Jan. 23, 2006) and governments simply don’t care. (The US rather than being a leader is becoming a culprit in deference to the Clean Water Act .) Even societies that once sang the tune of egalitarianism are adopting newer (not better) political and economic modes of ‘development’ strategies, to wit the free market globalization so as not to be left out! China is one prime example. India comes a close second. In these countries as well as in others in Africa, Latin America and Asia where there is abject poverty, scavenging the garbage is the only means of survival – from Moscow, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Philippines, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina and probably every Latin American country.

The occasional fanfare by Bob Geldof, Bono and Bill Gates, while getting the headlines and evoking awareness, and even earning the knighthood, does not make a dent or even paper over the tiniest cracks. Also, Christian charity and other charities have not done anything for the amelioration of global poverty. Such charities have tended to perpetuate a system or the notion that poverty has always been and will continue to be – a kind inevitable resolve that it is part of natural law to be poor. The solution goes beyond handing out mild palliatives. The problem is endemic and systemic. Jeffrey Sachs (see TIME MAGAZINE, March 6, 2005), who maintains a positive and dynamic attitude, has an uphill struggle indeed.

Nane Annan, wife of the United Nations' Secretary General Kofi Annan, echoes her husband’s concerns: "Ultimately, global society will be judged on how well - or how poorly - it treats its weakest and most disadvantaged."

"With one tenth of humanity living at the margin of survival, our record is not one that can be celebrated. We must change it. We must act collectively and decisively to bring about this change."

Indeed, we must act collectively, but mostly by individual actions in our daily activities. One of the simplest things that individuals can do is to follow simple steps to help themselves in alleviating the deplorable condition while waiting for the help from governments, which usually works at the snail’s pace. More often Governments work in complicity with the have’s against the poor and helpless. A classic modern day case is observed in the Aamby Valley township in India since “India [began to be] globalised in the 1990s”. The Gandhian identification with the poor is certainly losing ground fast among the nouveau riche with their “new [conspicuous] money culture”, associating only with the “right sort of people”. (Read “A tale of two Indias”, The Guardian, April 5, 2006 )

One of the key elements in the fight against poverty, working singly or in consort with governments, is a regular and adequate supply of water. This water must be suitable for agriculture and also clean for human and animal consumption.

Kahlil Gibran wrote: “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”

But stop for some summary scientific background:

From all available evidence, it is most probable that water is the medium in which life first appeared on earth. It is the reason why astro-biologists, exploring for extra-terrestrial life, are on the lookout for planets that contain water.

Water is ubiquitous on planet earth and it contains the greatest abundance and diversity of living organisms. As far as is known, of the animals that adopted terrestrial life, all (except some insects) spend some part of their life immersed in water (some at least in their larval or embryonic stages).

Animal bodies and many plants contain about 60-70% water by volume. It is thus easy to understand that all biochemical reactions of life take place in an aqueous medium. Even respiratory gases must be dissolved in water prior to their transport in the bodies.

Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is frozen in ice caps and glaciers. Only 1% can be used for agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs.

Water has been observed to be the universal biological solvent. Often it is a reactant or a product of biological reactions.

Water possesses a number of unique physical properties that are essential or of great importance for the sustenance and maintenance of life:

It is the best biochemical solvent. (Only liquid ammonia dissolves more substances than water.)

It has a high surface tension because its molecules are more closely packed together at the interfaces between water and other media. Therefore, dissolved substances tend also to be concentrated at the surface. Under such conditions, chemical reactions between various dissolved substances occur more rapidly there – almost similar to the action of inorganic catalysts in promoting chemical reactions by holding reactants together.

It possesses low compressibility and can be easily deformed. As such, it acts as a shock absorber, and also serves as a medium for transmitting forces from one place to another – like a hydraulic power transmission.

Water is transparent to light, but has a greater optical density than air – so that air-water interfaces can refract light as well. Optical systems involving aqueous lenses serve in the visual systems of animals.

Water has a low viscosity; thus it is an efficient vehicle for transport of substances through living bodies. At other times it can react with certain dissolved substances (solutes) to form solutions of high viscosity, such solutions being good lubricants at various points in an animal’s body like joints and other areas involving mechanical friction.

Water has a high specific heat. This means that it can lose or gain large amounts of heat with only small changes in its own temperature. In this way it acts as a sort of temperature buffer for an animal body. One can also glean the importance of this quality with regard to oceans, lakes and rivers that act as a temperature buffer for the atmosphere. If planet earth had larger areas of land and smaller area of water, the temperature extremes of the air would be much greater that they are at present.

Water has a high latent heat of evaporation, which means that evaporation of a small amount of water is accompanied by the loss of a relatively large amount of heat from the water. Water evaporation is therefore an efficient cooling mechanism, and this principle is widely used in the regulation of animal body temperature during perspiration and panting. (This property of water is of course related to its high specific heat.)

Water can be held by other substances in fairly largely amounts as “bound” water or water of hydration. In this form the water molecules are bound tightly to the molecules of the other substances but do not react chemically with them. In such cases the water does not act as a solvent and it is thus not easily evaporated or frozen. The physical properties of such “bound” water are quite different from “free” water. This is of importance for some organisms in extremely dry environments (e.g. grain beetles) and in winter-hardy plants (e.g. winter wheat) where unusually large amounts of their contained water are in the “bound” form.

When water freezes it expands, and it then floats. Even if no air bubbles are incorporated in the ice, the frozen water has a lower specific gravity than water in the liquid state. If water (like most other liquids) decreases in volume with lowered temperature, the resulting ice would sink to the bottom of lakes and seas during each winter. Since the temperature at the bottom of lakes and seas does not rise very much in the summer, large bodies of water would be partially filled with permanent ice, and this would build up incrementally year after year. If this were to happen, the available living space for aquatic organism would be severely restricted. In addition, the bottom temperature would be incrementally lowered! And the salinity of the water would be dis-equilibrated to effect change in osmotic concentration of the lakes and oceans. It is difficult to surmise what changes such conditions would have imposed on the course of evolution! Or in the future, if this were to occur!

AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL one learns that matter (and energy) is neither created nor destroyed. Also, one learns that the earth has a limited amount of water. This water circulates constantly in what is called the Water Cycle, namely, evaporation (and transpiration from plants), condensation in the clouds, precipitation in rain and snow, collection on earth (rivers, lakes, oceans), and again evaporation…. This cycle can sometimes be disturbed by man’s injudicious intervention and can result in droughts or floods, or in acid rains that kill off many aquatic life forms. Some romanticize this water in poetic ways: “Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike. The Zen proverb says: “However quick the stream may be, it does not carry away the reflection of the moon.” This saying however can be true only when there is a stream, and if streams are not destroyed or dried up in name of human ‘progress’.

The World Water Council has enumerated some fundamental human rights that cannot be fully realized without water:

• Right to life: Without water, no life can be sustained.
• Right to food: Water is essential for farming: almost 70% of all mobilized freshwater is used for agriculture and it is estimated that more than one third of global food production is based on irrigation.
• Right to self-determination: this right also includes the right of all people to manage their own resources and is thus connected to a right to water.
• Right to adequate standard of living, can not be realized without a secure access to water.
• Right to housing: As the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated: "the right to adequate housing should have sustainable access to natural and common resources, safe drinking water... sanitation and washing facilities".
• Right to education: The lack of proper supply of water forces children to walk long distances, often several times a day - thus missing school - to provide their families with water.
• Right to take part in cultural life: The destruction, expropriation or pollution of water-related cultural sites represents a failure to take adequate steps to safeguard the cultural identity of various ethnic groups.

But this right to water is often denied in developing as well as developed countries.

The Situation

As I write there are extreme shortages of water in Easter Africa. The WWC has some Facts and Figures:

• 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water
• 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation (2002, UNICEF/WHO JMP 2004)
• 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases.
• 3,900 children die every day from water borne diseases. (WHO 2004)
• Daily per capita use of water in residential areas:

350 litres in North America and Japan
200 litres in Europe
10-20 litres in sub-Saharan Africa.

As in cases of inadequate food and clothing to everyone the issue is not the availability of water per se; it is more about access to and distribution of water to those in need. It is about human greed and uncaring that allow for suffering to so many in the midst of plenty to the relatively few with excesses.

Modern lifestyle ironically can have a negative effect on water quality and ecology of large bodies of fresh water. For example, effluent of sewage, run-off from lawns, golf courses and farms provide too much nutrients to lakes and reservoirs, stimulating excessive growth of aquatic plants, especially algae and planktons. This in turn depletes the water of dissolved oxygen, and results in death of fish and other aquatic animals. Such eutrophication disturbs the aquatic ecosystem. It is a natural process that occurs unnoticeably and balances itself over many years. But man-made eutrophication has drastic effects (as was observed in Lake Erie in the 1960’s). Such dead bodies of water are poor in quality and this is boosted by organic matter pollution brought about by rotting and stinking algae and fish. In addition to this, reservoirs are constantly polluted with industrial toxic wastes which are irresponsibly dumped into these bodies of water. Also, saline intrusion into fresh water occurs periodically when there are breaches of dams and during flooding. Obviously, this destroys agricultural crops as well as kills farm animals. In poor countries, people often drink such (untreated) water, causing various diseases, including diarrhea and dehydration.

Freshwater is not only for drinking; it is also for agriculture and animal husbandry, industry and manufacture, and diverse domestic use. Unfortunately, many people take water for granted – it falls free as rain; it is present everywhere. Yet, hunger, starvation and diseases are widespread because of lack of clean fresh water. Territorial wars are being fought in water boundary dispute. (It’s not only in the old cowboy movies!)

There is no doubt that a lot of water is wasted either deliberately or irresponsibly by the rich and affluent. Likewise a lot is wasted by the poor and backward through ignorance, or with the assumption that it is free-for-all, as long as they are not paying for it. With modern day living and lifestyle changes, water consumption increases, sometimes unnecessarily so. This wastage of water does not have to happen if careful thought is given to the value of water, and if prudent official management guides and regulates its usage.

THE THEME of the 2006 World Water Day was "Water and Culture". Richard Meganck, UNESCO-IHE, noted that “water is central for cultural expressions and the survival of humanity… that a new water culture begins with each one of us and requires understanding of its environmental, social, economic and political dimensions…” and further that “water management is facing increasing challenges, including, water scarcity, climate change, urbanization and decentralization, and these challenges require more capabilities of people and institutions strengthened at all levels.”

Simple do’s and dont’s for improvement

Water should be recognized as a great priority in policy-making. One of the main objectives of the World Water Council is to increase awareness of the water issue. Decision-makers at all levels must be implicated.

Commonsense approach is obviously essential. But first, all and sundry must accept that everybody should have a basic right to clean fresh water. The principle of ‘think globally and act locally’ should filter down to even the remotest villages. This means that responsibility should be given to those who are end-users. What does this mean in practical terms? It means that village leaders, and each home, have to ensure that there is proper management of water usage. Faucets must not be kept running unnecessarily. Sprinklers on lawns must be reduced to a minimum. Watering hose must give way to watering cans. Short shower instead of bath. Shut off faucet while brushing teeth. Use low volume toilet tank. Repair of leaky faucet. Fewer car wash. Refrain from polluting streams and reservoirs with toxins and household waste. In addition, creative ways must be adopted to collect and utilize rain water under sanitary conditions. Also, low cost wells can be procured and maintained with minimal effort. In Tanzania, solar radiation combined with ultra-violet rays and heat is used to kill the bacteria which cause common water-borne diseases.

•For positive and efficient breakthrough, there has to be massive education via teach-ins videos and fliers at the local and home levels.
•Thus there must be adequate budgeting and follow-up monitoring and accountability.
•And the "polluter pays" principle should be applied to anyone who breaks the agreed rules.

“The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, reduce the risk of water-related disease and provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements”. – General Comment 15, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2002.

“In every glass of water we drink, some of the water has already passed through fishes, trees, bacteria, worms in the soil, and many other organisms, including people... Living systems cleanse water and make it fit, among other things, for human consumption.” – Elliot A. Norse.

While this is generally true, it is also a propos the current trend on water abuse, that water may not be renewable in the foreseeable future.

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin.

But then it may be too late – too late, too late….

To end, it is worth reflecting on the words of this unknown author: “Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

The writer is the Editor of Guyana Journal.

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Water – The Gift of Life
By Gary Girdhari
Guyana Journal, April 2006

I started in the ocean in the crashing swelling waves.
I've flowed in raging rivers carving canyons, cliffs and caves.
You've seen me in the summer raindrops soaking fields of corn,
And wiped me from your window pane upon a frosty morn.

I am just a tiny drop of water, yes it's true,
But though I may be tiny, you just watch what I can do. – Nick Walker

How many Guyanese remember the time when there were latrines overhanging trenches in the countryside? And the water from these trenches used for domestic purposes? Children bathed in this water. Kitchen utensils and clothes were washed with this water. This unsanitary practice was due to the lack of clean water supply in the villages, and resulted in diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea, eczema, skin infections, hookworm, tapeworm, pin worm and round worm infection. Such conditions still prevail in many parts of the poor undeveloped world – the “Turd World”.

The deplorable conditions have remained in varying degrees. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, the 1st World Water Forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco, on March 1997 where it elaborated on the World Water Council’s objective “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level, to facilitate the efficient management and use of water in all its dimensions and on an environmentally sustainable basis.”

This forum was followed by a 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands, in March 2000, which deliberated on the “Water Vision for the Future” and “Framework for Action”, addressing questions about “the state and ownership of water resources, their development potential, management and financing models, and their impact on poverty, social, cultural and economic development and the environment...,” affirming the Ministerial Declaration of “meeting basic water needs, securing food supply, protecting ecosystems, sharing water resources, managing risks, valuing water and governing water wisely as the key challenges for our direct future.”

The 3rd World Water Forum was held in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka, Japan on March 2003, and a 4th World Water Forum was recently concluded in Mexico, March 16-22, 2006 where it was re-emphasized: “The World Water Forum is a World Water Council (WWC) initiative that aims to raise awareness on water issues all over the world. As the main international event on water, it seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to influence water policy making at a global level, thus assuring better living standards for people all over the world and a more responsible social behaviour towards water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development,” the catchy theme being “Local Actions for a Global Challenge.”

AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CENTURY, the United Nations pledged in a Declaration to "halve, by the year 2015... the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water". Again in September 2002, the Johannesburg World Summit of Sustainable Development Declaration proposed to halve the proportion of people with no basic sanitation by 2015. Water, of course, is key in attaining this goal. With the outbreak of various flu, including the bird flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has strongly recommended regular washing of hands as a protective measure. How is this possible in places where there is no clean water? It’s not!

What seems quite illuminating is the real fact of the dismal situation globally. In rich countries and where affluence dominates in other countries there is a seeming neglect – sometimes deliberate and otherwise benign – in poverty stricken enclaves. But the colossal scale of poverty, with insufficient food, lack of clean water, diseases (that are preventable), and other elementary basics of decent civilized life, are growing rather than diminishing. The rich are getting richer, (see “A Social ‘Time Bomb”, Newsweek, Jan. 23, 2006) and governments simply don’t care. (The US rather than being a leader is becoming a culprit in deference to the Clean Water Act .) Even societies that once sang the tune of egalitarianism are adopting newer (not better) political and economic modes of ‘development’ strategies, to wit the free market globalization so as not to be left out! China is one prime example. India comes a close second. In these countries as well as in others in Africa, Latin America and Asia where there is abject poverty, scavenging the garbage is the only means of survival – from Moscow, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Philippines, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina and probably every Latin American country.

The occasional fanfare by Bob Geldof, Bono and Bill Gates, while getting the headlines and evoking awareness, and even earning the knighthood, does not make a dent or even paper over the tiniest cracks. Also, Christian charity and other charities have not done anything for the amelioration of global poverty. Such charities have tended to perpetuate a system or the notion that poverty has always been and will continue to be – a kind inevitable resolve that it is part of natural law to be poor. The solution goes beyond handing out mild palliatives. The problem is endemic and systemic. Jeffrey Sachs (see TIME MAGAZINE, March 6, 2005), who maintains a positive and dynamic attitude, has an uphill struggle indeed.

Nane Annan, wife of the United Nations' Secretary General Kofi Annan, echoes her husband’s concerns: "Ultimately, global society will be judged on how well - or how poorly - it treats its weakest and most disadvantaged."

"With one tenth of humanity living at the margin of survival, our record is not one that can be celebrated. We must change it. We must act collectively and decisively to bring about this change."

Indeed, we must act collectively, but mostly by individual actions in our daily activities. One of the simplest things that individuals can do is to follow simple steps to help themselves in alleviating the deplorable condition while waiting for the help from governments, which usually works at the snail’s pace. More often Governments work in complicity with the have’s against the poor and helpless. A classic modern day case is observed in the Aamby Valley township in India since “India [began to be] globalised in the 1990s”. The Gandhian identification with the poor is certainly losing ground fast among the nouveau riche with their “new [conspicuous] money culture”, associating only with the “right sort of people”. (Read “A tale of two Indias”, The Guardian, April 5, 2006 )

One of the key elements in the fight against poverty, working singly or in consort with governments, is a regular and adequate supply of water. This water must be suitable for agriculture and also clean for human and animal consumption.

Kahlil Gibran wrote: “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”

But stop for some summary scientific background:

From all available evidence, it is most probable that water is the medium in which life first appeared on earth. It is the reason why astro-biologists, exploring for extra-terrestrial life, are on the lookout for planets that contain water.
Water is ubiquitous on planet earth and it contains the greatest abundance and diversity of living organisms. As far as is known, of the animals that adopted terrestrial life, all (except some insects) spend some part of their life immersed in water (some at least in their larval or embryonic stages).
Animal bodies and many plants contain about 60-70% water by volume. It is thus easy to understand that all biochemical reactions of life take place in an aqueous medium. Even respiratory gases must be dissolved in water prior to their transport in the bodies.
Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is frozen in ice caps and glaciers. Only 1% can be used for agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs.
Water has been observed to be the universal biological solvent. Often it is a reactant or a product of biological reactions.
Water possesses a number of unique physical properties that are essential or of great importance for the sustenance and maintenance of life:

It is the best biochemical solvent. (Only liquid ammonia dissolves more substances than water.)
It has a high surface tension because its molecules are more closely packed together at the interfaces between water and other media. Therefore, dissolved substances tend also to be concentrated at the surface. Under such conditions, chemical reactions between various dissolved substances occur more rapidly there – almost similar to the action of inorganic catalysts in promoting chemical reactions by holding reactants together.
It possesses low compressibility and can be easily deformed. As such, it acts as a shock absorber, and also serves as a medium for transmitting forces from one place to another – like a hydraulic power transmission.
Water is transparent to light, but has a greater optical density than air – so that air-water interfaces can refract light as well. Optical systems involving aqueous lenses serve in the visual systems of animals.
Water has a low viscosity; thus it is an efficient vehicle for transport of substances through living bodies. At other times it can react with certain dissolved substances (solutes) to form solutions of high viscosity, such solutions being good lubricants at various points in an animal’s body like joints and other areas involving mechanical friction.
Water has a high specific heat. This means that it can lose or gain large amounts of heat with only small changes in its own temperature. In this way it acts as a sort of temperature buffer for an animal body. One can also glean the importance of this quality with regard to oceans, lakes and rivers that act as a temperature buffer for the atmosphere. If planet earth had larger areas of land and smaller area of water, the temperature extremes of the air would be much greater that they are at present.
Water has a high latent heat of evaporation, which means that evaporation of a small amount of water is accompanied by the loss of a relatively large amount of heat from the water. Water evaporation is therefore an efficient cooling mechanism, and this principle is widely used in the regulation of animal body temperature during perspiration and panting. (This property of water is of course related to its high specific heat.)
Water can be held by other substances in fairly largely amounts as “bound” water or water of hydration. In this form the water molecules are bound tightly to the molecules of the other substances but do not react chemically with them. In such cases the water does not act as a solvent and it is thus not easily evaporated or frozen. The physical properties of such “bound” water are quite different from “free” water. This is of importance for some organisms in extremely dry environments (e.g. grain beetles) and in winter-hardy plants (e.g. winter wheat) where unusually large amounts of their contained water are in the “bound” form.
When water freezes it expands, and it then floats. Even if no air bubbles are incorporated in the ice, the frozen water has a lower specific gravity than water in the liquid state. If water (like most other liquids) decreases in volume with lowered temperature, the resulting ice would sink to the bottom of lakes and seas during each winter. Since the temperature at the bottom of lakes and seas does not rise very much in the summer, large bodies of water would be partially filled with permanent ice, and this would build up incrementally year after year. If this were to happen, the available living space for aquatic organism would be severely restricted. In addition, the bottom temperature would be incrementally lowered! And the salinity of the water would be dis-equilibrated to effect change in osmotic concentration of the lakes and oceans. It is difficult to surmise what changes such conditions would have imposed on the course of evolution! Or in the future, if this were to occur!

AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL one learns that matter (and energy) is neither created nor destroyed. Also, one learns that the earth has a limited amount of water. This water circulates constantly in what is called the Water Cycle, namely, evaporation (and transpiration from plants), condensation in the clouds, precipitation in rain and snow, collection on earth (rivers, lakes, oceans), and again evaporation…. This cycle can sometimes be disturbed by man’s injudicious intervention and can result in droughts or floods, or in acid rains that kill off many aquatic life forms. Some romanticize this water in poetic ways: “Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike. The Zen proverb says: “However quick the stream may be, it does not carry away the reflection of the moon.” This saying however can be true only when there is a stream, and if streams are not destroyed or dried up in name of human ‘progress’.

The World Water Council has enumerated some fundamental human rights that cannot be fully realized without water:

• Right to life: Without water, no life can be sustained.
• Right to food: Water is essential for farming: almost 70% of all mobilized freshwater is used for agriculture and it is estimated that more than one third of global food production is based on irrigation.
• Right to self-determination: this right also includes the right of all people to manage their own resources and is thus connected to a right to water.
• Right to adequate standard of living, can not be realized without a secure access to water.
• Right to housing: As the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated: "the right to adequate housing should have sustainable access to natural and common resources, safe drinking water... sanitation and washing facilities".
• Right to education: The lack of proper supply of water forces children to walk long distances, often several times a day - thus missing school - to provide their families with water.
• Right to take part in cultural life: The destruction, expropriation or pollution of water-related cultural sites represents a failure to take adequate steps to safeguard the cultural identity of various ethnic groups.

But this right to water is often denied in developing as well as developed countries.

The Situation

As I write there are extreme shortages of water in Easter Africa. The WWC has some Facts and Figures:

• 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water
• 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation (2002, UNICEF/WHO JMP 2004)
• 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases.
• 3,900 children die every day from water borne diseases. (WHO 2004)
• Daily per capita use of water in residential areas:

350 litres in North America and Japan
200 litres in Europe
10-20 litres in sub-Saharan Africa.

As in cases of inadequate food and clothing to everyone the issue is not the availability of water per se; it is more about access to and distribution of water to those in need. It is about human greed and uncaring that allow for suffering to so many in the midst of plenty to the relatively few with excesses.

Modern lifestyle ironically can have a negative effect on water quality and ecology of large bodies of fresh water. For example, effluent of sewage, run-off from lawns, golf courses and farms provide too much nutrients to lakes and reservoirs, stimulating excessive growth of aquatic plants, especially algae and planktons. This in turn depletes the water of dissolved oxygen, and results in death of fish and other aquatic animals. Such eutrophication disturbs the aquatic ecosystem. It is a natural process that occurs unnoticeably and balances itself over many years. But man-made eutrophication has drastic effects (as was observed in Lake Erie in the 1960’s). Such dead bodies of water are poor in quality and this is boosted by organic matter pollution brought about by rotting and stinking algae and fish. In addition to this, reservoirs are constantly polluted with industrial toxic wastes which are irresponsibly dumped into these bodies of water. Also, saline intrusion into fresh water occurs periodically when there are breaches of dams and during flooding. Obviously, this destroys agricultural crops as well as kills farm animals. In poor countries, people often drink such (untreated) water, causing various diseases, including diarrhea and dehydration.

Freshwater is not only for drinking; it is also for agriculture and animal husbandry, industry and manufacture, and diverse domestic use. Unfortunately, many people take water for granted – it falls free as rain; it is present everywhere. Yet, hunger, starvation and diseases are widespread because of lack of clean fresh water. Territorial wars are being fought in water boundary dispute. (It’s not only in the old cowboy movies!)

There is no doubt that a lot of water is wasted either deliberately or irresponsibly by the rich and affluent. Likewise a lot is wasted by the poor and backward through ignorance, or with the assumption that it is free-for-all, as long as they are not paying for it. With modern day living and lifestyle changes, water consumption increases, sometimes unnecessarily so. This wastage of water does not have to happen if careful thought is given to the value of water, and if prudent official management guides and regulates its usage.

THE THEME of the 2006 World Water Day was "Water and Culture". Richard Meganck, UNESCO-IHE, noted that “water is central for cultural expressions and the survival of humanity… that a new water culture begins with each one of us and requires understanding of its environmental, social, economic and political dimensions…” and further that “water management is facing increasing challenges, including, water scarcity, climate change, urbanization and decentralization, and these challenges require more capabilities of people and institutions strengthened at all levels.”

Simple do’s and dont’s for improvement

Water should be recognized as a great priority in policy-making. One of the main objectives of the World Water Council is to increase awareness of the water issue. Decision-makers at all levels must be implicated.

Commonsense approach is obviously essential. But first, all and sundry must accept that everybody should have a basic right to clean fresh water. The principle of ‘think globally and act locally’ should filter down to even the remotest villages. This means that responsibility should be given to those who are end-users. What does this mean in practical terms? It means that village leaders, and each home, have to ensure that there is proper management of water usage. Faucets must not be kept running unnecessarily. Sprinklers on lawns must be reduced to a minimum. Watering hose must give way to watering cans. Short shower instead of bath. Shut off faucet while brushing teeth. Use low volume toilet tank. Repair of leaky faucet. Fewer car wash. Refrain from polluting streams and reservoirs with toxins and household waste. In addition, creative ways must be adopted to collect and utilize rain water under sanitary conditions. Also, low cost wells can be procured and maintained with minimal effort. In Tanzania, solar radiation combined with ultra-violet rays and heat is used to kill the bacteria which cause common water-borne diseases.

•For positive and efficient breakthrough, there has to be massive education via teach-ins videos and fliers at the local and home levels.
•Thus there must be adequate budgeting and follow-up monitoring and accountability.
•And the "polluter pays" principle should be applied to anyone who breaks the agreed rules.

“The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, reduce the risk of water-related disease and provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements”. – General Comment 15, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2002.

“In every glass of water we drink, some of the water has already passed through fishes, trees, bacteria, worms in the soil, and many other organisms, including people... Living systems cleanse water and make it fit, among other things, for human consumption.” – Elliot A. Norse.

While this is generally true, it is also a propos the current trend on water abuse, that water may not be renewable in the foreseeable future.

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin.

But then it may be too late – too late, too late….

To end, it is worth reflecting on the words of this unknown author: “Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

The writer is the Editor of Guyana Journal.