The world’s looming water crisis

The golden age of water is drawing to a close claims the journalist Charles Fishman in The Big Thirst, his best-selling narrative on the planet’s global water crisis.

In the developed world we have become accustomed to quaffing, bathing in and flushing away as much water as we care to. But any day soon, climate change, population growth and other factors will bring this to an end, he confidently predicts.

He writes: “We have ignored water – neglected our water supplies and our water systems, taken for granted the economic value of abundant water and become blasé about the day-to-day convenience of easy water. We may well go directly from the golden age of water to the revenge of water.”

Over recent weeks, the beleaguered population of the UK has already begun to come to terms with this concept of aquatic vengeance. Torrential rain has drenched the nation, leaving widespread flooding in its wake. However, despite this being one of the wettest months of April ever recorded, an unusually dry winter means much of England is still designated as officially in drought.

The reason for this seemingly contradictory state of affairs is, according to the UK Environment Agency, that the deluge arrived in the wrong season. Apparently, only winter rain can fill the underground aquifers that are vital to well-filled reservoirs. This is of little comfort to the baffled citizens who have seen their homesteads engulfed by floods, yet are being warned that by summer their water mains may be cut off, forcing them to rely on standpipes in the streets for their daily needs.

Yet, if an essentially tepid country like the UK is caught in a quandary over its water sources, one would surmise that it’s infinitely worse in the Arabian Peninsula.

And indeed it is, according to Steven Caton, a professor of contemporary Arab studies at Harvard University. At his New York University Abu Dhabi Institute speech at Manarat Al Saadiyat earlier this week, Caton mused over the imminent prospect of degradation and shortages in water reserves in this part of the world.

His main focus was on how the rapid urbanisation of Gulf cities has required the building of ever greater desalination plants, as ground water from springs could never fully quench the growing population’s thirst.

Yet this desalination, he explained, arrives with a steep environmental cost; none higher than having to discard all that extracted salt. If this salt is returned to the sea, it increases the Gulf’s saline content. If it is deposited in desert landfill sites, it contaminates the ground water rendering it undrinkable.

“Rather like nuclear nations trying to figure out how get rid of their radioactive waste, Gulf countries are trying to figure out where to dump their salt, which lie like ticking time bombs in the desert,” claims Caton. “The question government officials are beginning to ask is just how sustainable is this approach? Should not the governments of the region talk about scaling back their development in order to preserve their water supplies?” he asked.

So, will this mean the residents of the Gulf nations will need to up sticks? Not according to Fishman. He optimistically predicts that the world’s water dilemmas are solvable. Yet, whether we like it or not, all of us will have to radically change the way we consume water in years to come, especially those of us who choose to make this region our home.

Fishman states: “Many civilisations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.”

So, enjoy your your lengthy soak in the bath while you can. From the drenched flood plains of England, to the deserts of Arabia, it might be time to accept that once abundant water supplies are running dry.

The National