Ensuring safe fresh water for all is a mission that is within our reach
THERE is no shortage of water in the world. Setting aside the obvious that 71% of the Earth is covered by the oceans, there is ample fresh water available to meet the needs of a thirsty world, including those of the Western Cape.
Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water, and most of that is ice. Since the dawn of time humankind has survived, even flourished, on the less than 1% of fresh water that remains and is available for human consumption.
The problem is this water is unevenly distributed, mismanaged, and wasted. Climate change will only make matters worse.
Shortly after the release of his encyclical Laudato Si, addressing water famine caused by global climate change, Pope Francis stated emphatically that “unless civilisation learns to share water, we are doomed”. Already, in the time it takes to read this article, six children will have died somewhere in the world for the lack of safe drinking water. Farmers are taking their own lives owing to the lack of irrigation water. Intelligence agencies are forecasting future wars as border tensions mount and “water refugees” exacerbate an already critical refugee crisis.
The pontiff ’s words were a warning – and a call to action.
It is fitting that a religious leader should address water and the environment, for God was first revealed through Creation.
In Judeo-Christianity, the call to “keep the garden” is found before the Ten Commandments, in the Book of Genesis.
In Islam, what we know as heaven is literally translated to be “the watering place”. Perhaps if we addressed our stewardship of water with the minds of the ancients – with a reverence for the sacred – this precious resource would not be wasted and degraded as it is today in much of the industrialised world.
Sharing water, of course, has been going on for a long time. But to meet the demands of the modern world, coastal areas (where the majority of the human population is to be found) need to think anew about meeting demand.
This is as true for the Western Cape as it is for the rest of the African continent, the Mediterranean, Asia, Australia and many other areas. International trade is a form of sharing, and the same medium that transports more than 95% of global trade, ocean shipping, can provide welcome relief to the Western Cape and elsewhere in the not too distant future.
Advances in marine technology, from propulsion systems to lightweight composite materials for building vessels, along with cost-saving features unique to bulk water transport, allow for superior quality water to be transferred (or shared) over any distance, at costs well below alternatives like desalination. The emergence of this industry in South Africa would also yield significant economic and environmental benefits to the maritime economy from Port Elizabeth to Durban.The advantages of high quality water should not be understated. Aside from the public health benefits, existing water treatment costs can be reduced and the savings passed on to consumers.
Water is a public benefit resource and, rightly, should be governed by public bodies having the common good as their beacon. Solutions to the Western Cape’s water crisis are at hand. The question is whether public officials in the Western Cape and South Africa have the will to think anew, and create a water future that is safe and secure.
Barbieri is president of the Natural Resources Corporation in California. He can be reached at john@nrcwater.com