John Pearson warns about water shortage
‘Save Water, bath with a friend’. Most readers will remember those instructions, said tongue in cheek (or maybe not) back in the mid to late summer of 1976 – the time of our own most serious drought here in the UK. Long hot months (with temperatures of 90 degrees F for 15 consecutive days from late June to early July) led to the inevitable hosepipe bans and a plethora of hints for saving our limited reserves of water; put a brick in your toilet cistern to limit the amount of water flushed away, use old washing up water to fill that same cistern, similarly, use washing up water on the plants, and so on. We were advised to use no more than five inches of water in the bath (ten inches for two, presumably?). Big Brother was watching us – with cars patrolling the streets on the lookout for infringements of the hosepipe ban. There was a steep fine for the guilty; the sum of £400 (£2,600 in today’s money). I myself was the proud new owner of my first second-hand car. It sat gathering dust in the street.
Undoubtedly, the drought of 1976 was a serious one – 1975 being the fifth driest in the twentieth century, so serious that the Prime Minister of the day appointed Denis Howell ‘Drought Supremo’. Consideration was even given to creating large scale water de-salination plants as possible sources of fresh water amid fears that the problem had set in for the long term. Ministers passed a ‘Drought Act’ in August to the accompaniment of a renewed flurry of previous leaflets, newspaper advertisements, radio and television advice and even some road signs. Perhaps someone, or something, in the Heavens took notice, for within days of the passing of the Act it rained – at first a trickle but developing into some serious downpours through September and October, gradually replenishing the stocks in reservoirs. Presumably the general populace, who had grumbled about how dry it was and all the restrictions, now began to grumble about how wet it was!
‘Water, water everywhere, nor any a drop to drink’ – so said Coleridge in his poem ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. So my father might have said as I headed off for India 25 years ago, albeit for a different reason. He tended to be somewhat suspicious of things in foreign lands – especially the water.
Water covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface, but fresh water, the stuff we drink, bathe in, irrigate fields with (and wash our cars with, those who have them) is in fact rare. A mere 3% of the world’s water is fresh, and two thirds of this is tucked away in glaciers or unavailable for use in some way. Consequently, it is said, 1.1 billion people worldwide regularly lack access to sufficient water, whilst 2.7 billion (26% of the total population!), suffering a shortage for at least one month each year. For many who do have access to water its quality is very poor, proving a breeding ground for disease. Up to 2 million people, most of them children, die each year from diarrhoeal diseases alone. I’m sure we’ve all seen the advertisements and appeals for help in the media? In Britain of course many died from cholera in 1866, chiefly in East London, where discoveries by Dr John Snow regarding the significance of clean drinking water eventually put an end to the disease.
On a global scale water systems have become stressed. Rivers, lakes and aquifers are drying up or becoming too polluted to use. In the UK we are beset by tales of excessive loss through poor maintenance, sewage leaks into watercourses and the like.
Of course in some cases access to fresh, healthy drinking water hidden underground can be addressed relatively easily, where there is the funding and the expertise available. So, in India, I have seen wells being dug, providing isolated villages with water for drinking and the more effective irrigation of simple crops. Purposely overlooking my father’s reservations, above, and the bottled water carried by some of my companions, I accepted the glasses of water offered me by the villagers we met. Sometimes it was all they could afford to offer a visitor and to them, in such a hot land, it was a precious gift to give, even with a new well.
Climate Change (born of the continued pumping of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere) can affect rainfall and this may be increased if the problem is not addressed, patterns of weather and water causing drought on one Continent and, ironically, flooding on another. Here in the UK we see how in a long hot summer some regions are starved of water whilst in others, usually less accessible and/or less populated, there can be a glut of the stuff. Proposals have been made for a ‘National Grid’-style network of large, heavy duty pipelines to re-distribute supplies effectively so as to meet varying regional needs. This last still looks a long way in the future however, not least as it would require serious co-operation between numerous controlling companies, each zealously guarding supplies and profit margins!
Severe droughts are not unheard of – from those in biblical times through to the present day. For many continents 2023 was characterised by excessive warmth. 2023 was the warmest year on record for North and South America, the second warmest ever for Asia and Europe and the eighth warmest ever for Australia. Across the year drought areas included Southeast Asia, Mexico and the southern United States. A number of regions are forecast as likely sufferers from drought in 2024 – the changed water cycle being attributed to the transition from ‘La Niña’ to ‘El Niño’ (opposing climate patterns) against a backdrop of overall increasing sea temperatures. To prove there is an opposite extreme, 2023 also saw waterlogged wheat, ruined orange crops and the like, the result of hurricanes and flooding.
Crop failure can have serious economic effects – not just local but extending to the world economy. As an example the BBC cite the olive-growing areas of Spain (traditionally responsible for 70% of European consumption of olive oil and 45% of that worldwide). Lack of rain in these areas has an enormous effect on the volume of oil being produced, with knock-on consequences for its price on the market. The shortage of rain actually falling on the crops was matched by corresponding falls in reservoirs. Elsewhere, wheat production is 7% down in Canada, with corn, soybean, hay and other commodities affected in the USA – all with economic consequences. Agriculture uses 70% of the world’s accessible freshwater, but some 60% of this is wasted due to leaky irrigation systems. Many countries that produce large amounts of food – including India, China, Australia, Spain and the United States – have reached or are close to reaching their water resource limits.
A drier world does not just have immediate consequences for fresh water supplies, but the knock-on effect can be devastating, not just for food production, and also for wildlife, as witness the great losses in Australia’s recent bushfire crisis. It is estimated that here as many as five billion creatures suffer, losing their lives and/or their customary habitat.
The deprivations, destruction and losses listed above are truly shocking and something which many of us, myself included, may take for granted as we clean our cars or water the plants. Perhaps we should have more concern for those less fortunate than ourselves – taking at least some simple measures to conserve water, not just by putting the brick in the cistern but a water butt in the garden to catch run-off water from the roof for re-use. Instead of that smart paving covering 100% of what was once a front garden, leave at least some lawn and some borders, allowing rain to enter the soil and, in due course to re-enter the water cycle, rather than running off into the drains and being, in effect, lost to the world.
Have a care. ‘One man’s meat …’ as they say. In this case, one man’s car wash or row of prize leeks (I am an honorary Geordie) is another man’s drinking water!