Water: The elixir of Life

“Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.”
Francis of Assisi

Water, water, every where,
Not any drop to drink.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

If the 'holy spirit' had a material form it would be water. Water is absolutely essential to every living thing, without it none would survive; water is truly our most precious resource. Not only is it essential to all living processes, it is fundamental to most, if not all, geophysical processes and in all its forms plays a major role in the moderation of Earth's climate. To date Modern man has treated water as a resource to be consumed and not as a vital, precious gift to be protected.

Throughout history man has chosen to live near sources of fresh water, using it not just for drinking but for agriculture, sanitation and in industrial and mining processes. With the growth in population and consequent increases in water usage in all these areas, mankind has not only polluted water stocks but we now live in a world with insufficient fresh water to support our needs, let alone those of the rest of the ecosystem. The increasing development of the more populous nations of the world will only exacerbate this problem. We can no longer take water for granted and must develop technologies and processes to limit its use wherever possible. We must also recognise that we must, over the long term, allow our population distribution across the planet to be limited by sustainable water availability. This will require a managed transition spanning generations and, if massive suffering is to be avoided, the sharing of technologies and resources across nations whilst this balance is achieved. I have no doubt that should we choose to attend to such matters as a priority for all, instead of focusing on material wealth, countless suffering could be avoided.

There are 1.4 billion cubic Kilometres of water covering 71% of the Earth’s surface, 97.5% of which is saltwater in the oceans and seas, containing some 70% of the Earth’s biomass. For this reason we must urgently understand and minimise the impact man has on saltwater, its inhabitants and the role it plays in the moderation of the Earth’s climate. Of the remaining 2.5 % which is fresh water only one third is in liquid form and almost all of it, namely 98.5%, is held below ground in rocky aquifers, this remains there for thousands of years only gradually seeping to the surface. This leaves an ever decreasing and extremely limited amount of accessible fresh water which is why over 1 billion people have no access to clean water and 2.6 billion have no sanitation . The dynamic fresh water cycle which irrigates the biosphere is driven by water evaporation from sea and land which subsequently falls as rain.

In man’s search for extraterrestrial life, the presence of water on a planet is considered to be a pre-requisite and we must all come to realise exactly how important it is to the continued survival of life on Earth.