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Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Water, The Next Oil!
"I begin with the name of Allah, the most merciful".
Water,or more aptly the lack of it, is the biggest challenge faced by thehuman race. The foremost necessity of life, the very base of humancomposition, the basic right of every human being, "water" is not as abundant as once was believed.
To emphasize the direty of the situation at hand let us quickly go through some of the facts at hand.
- Only1% of the total water resources on earth are available for human use.While 70% of the world’s surface is covered by water, 97.5% of that issalt water. Of the remaining 2.5% that is freshwater, almost 68.7% isfrozen in ice caps and glaciers.
- Canada controls about 20% of the earth's fresh water.
- Upto 30% of fresh water supplies are lost due to leakage in developedcountries, and in some major cities, losses can run as high as 40% to70%.
- About90% of sewage and 70% of industrial wastes in developing countries aredischarged into water courses without treatment, often polluting theusable water supply.
- Aperson living in Sub-Saharan Africa uses about 10-20 (2.6-5.26 gallons)litres of water a day; on average, a Canadian uses 326 litres (86gallons) a day. [Courtesy: The water project]
Well,what the above stats tell me is very straight and simple. Water isscarce. Our treatment in usage of water has caused us to even magnifythe effects of this natural scarcity. We have been unimaginative andindifferent to "water" as problem. I have certain arguments to substantiate my interpretation of the problem.
1.It is absolutely true that 1% of water in the world is fit for humanuse. But the question that I pose is.... When man thought of flying, heknew that he was naturally not equipped for it, when he thought ofgoing to the moon, he knew it was not his place to be, so when manrealized that 97.5% of the Earth's water was unfit for him why didn'the make efforts to make it usable. I don't think it was impossible for"mighty man", I just believe we have been careless.
2.We have taken water for granted because we always have thought that airand water are there for ever and would never perish or get scarce. Thewastage in developed counties and the pollution in developing countrieshave brought us to the point where "water" seems to be the next deciderin the world power scenario.
3. With Canada having 20% of the water resources, a script is ready for an epic story of exploitation and inequality.
Thethings that we cannot control are not worthy of a discussion. What wecan do and must take up as emergency measures is to conserve. Inabilityto take this problem seriously might drive us back to dark-ages when awell owner would exploit thousands of Arabs because he had access towater and they didn't.
We shouldtry to limit our usage of water, not because "WE" don't have it butbecause majority of the people we share this world with are deprived ofit. If water flows in your tap, it is a privilege. Remember, "Where you are today, they were. Where they are today you might be tomorrow."
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