Water woes: Climate change, rapid modernisation threaten 'elixir of life'

It is aptly called the ‘elixir of life’, sustaining life in various forms, with societies, cities and civilisations evolving along river basins. But rapid modernisation, climate change and a growing population pose serious challenges over the future availability of water in the right quality and quantity.

Did you know that it takes between 3,182 and 9,092 litres of water to produce a cotton shirt and a pair of jeans, the equivalent of one person drinking eight cups of water per day for 10 years? Or that you daily use far more water than you are aware of: much water is used to produce the things we consume, such as vegetables, bread, beef, shampoo, milk, fruit, or grain?

There is a contradiction at play in everyday life at the global level. It’s a daily reminder of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous words in his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner published in 1798: Water, water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink.

The fact is that over 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered in water, yet you see frequent reports and images of acute scarcity in various parts of the world — and increasingly, of conflicts, whose roots lie in control and access to water resources. For a large section of urban dwellers across the globe, water is easily available to the point of taking it for granted, but it is not so easy for most people. The climate is changing, and droughts are becoming more frequent, while societies expect a continuous supply of safe, clean drinking water. Farmers need water to irrigate crops and for the wellbeing of their livestock. Experts say action is needed now to secure a healthy environment for current and future generations. The lack of clean or safe water is a global problem, which, if unaddressed, will lead to an unsustainable future as the global population increases to nearly nine billion by 2050.

For example, Britain is an island surrounded by water and has several rivers flowing through but faces many challenges of quality and quantity.

Jean Spencer, an expert on water, says: “We’ve grown used to a constant supply of water to the point where it is difficult to contemplate what it’d be like if it wasn’t available. Yet, maintaining reliable water supplies needs careful management and planning and ours face significant pressures over the coming years.”

A looming crisis

Many studies say hundreds of millions of people across the globe are without access to safe drinking water (only 3 per cent of earth’s water is freshwater), and experts have long sounded warnings about the looming crisis, some even raising the prospect of ‘water wars’.

Nobel laureate CV Raman called water the ‘elixir of life’, and for renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci, it “is the driving force of all nature”, but water’s condition today is anything but healthy. The problems include overuse, pollution, issues over allocation, and lack of preservation and replenishment methods.

As US Vice-President Kamala Harris put it during a visit to Oakland, California, “For years, there were wars fought over oil; in a short time, there will be wars fought over water. We must address inequities in access to clean water, at local state federal levels. Understanding opportunities to build back up infrastructure around water.”

Her remarks revived debate over an issue that has many dimensions — individual, local, regional, national, global, and across sectors in economies — but rarely tops the public agenda, until a crisis point is reached. Water scarcity is estimated to affect roughly 40 per cent of the world’s population and, according to predictions by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, drought could displace up to 700 million people by 2030.

Water more important than fuel?

There is a growing belief among experts that since water comprises nearly 60 per cent of the human body, and is used extensively for domestic, agricultural, maritime-trade and industrial purposes, it may be more important than fuel in future. Figures show that agriculture is responsible for approximately 70 per cent of the global water demand, with industry and domestic demand at 20 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

In domestic usage, drinking and cooking contribute 10 per cent of our daily water usage, with bath taking the lion’s share (at an average of 55 litres per day). The water crisis is part of the wider challenge of climate change, with new studies pointing to significant changes in recent years in ocean health, melting of ice blocks, increasing flooding, deforestation and how water extraction by nations is adversely impacting the situation. This, in turn, adds more urgency to the development of wastewater treatment practices alongside industrial and agricultural expansion.

Access to water and sanitation is recognised as a human right by the UN, since lack of access to safe, sufficient, and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene facilities has a devastating effect on the health, dignity, and prosperity of billions of people, and has significant consequences for the realisation of other human rights. It is one of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but more effort is needed, as SDGs’ latest report says: “Water is essential not only to health, but also to poverty reduction, food security, peace and human rights, ecosystems, and education. Nevertheless, countries face growing challenges linked to water scarcity, water pollution, degraded water-related ecosystems, and cooperation over transboundary water basins. In addition, funding gaps and weak government systems hold many countries back from making needed advancements. Unless current rates of progress increase substantially, Goal 6 targets will not be met by 2030.”

Theatres of conflict

However, there is a silver lining: Data shows that 99 per cent of bathing waters in England have passed water quality standards following recent testing at over 400 designated sites, reflecting the highest percentage since new standards were introduced in 2015. Bathing waters are monitored for sources of pollution known to be a risk to bathers’ health, each sample is tested for bacteria, specifically E-coli and intestinal enterococci. In the early 1990s, only 28 per cent of bathing waters met the highest standards in force at that time.