"Right now, wars are fought for oil. Soon, wars will be fought for food and water."
Crude oil has been important to the development of Western nations. The economies of most Western countries are dependent on oil. This started with Britain introducing oil-only ships in 1912, which had greater speed advantages. Sustaining and maintaining her colonies made Britain dependent on the navy. When World War I rolled in, Britain had the most powerful oil-driven navy. This influenced the machinery of wars for decades. In World War II, Japan pushed into Southeast Asia and took control of Malaya and Singapore to provide fuel to keep its navy “war ready.” In current times, the importance of oil as political leverage and a fiscal resource in the U.S. can be seen in their planning to send troops to Saudi Arabia to secure oil supplies. This reliance and pursuit of oil has not altered even in the 21st century. The usage of water as war control has surfaced very recently. It was highlighted as Iraqi forces fought to gain and hold the Mosul Dam against ISIS. An important thing to note here is, once a source of water is captured, it is difficult to relinquish it. Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1976; it supplies nearly one-third of Israel’s water needs. Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights is in disregard of United Nations protocols. This continued disregard of internationally agreed protocols shows the importance of water to a nation’s survival. According to the United Nations, there have been 37 cases of violence based on water since the Second World War. The water crisis is not a very recent issue. The first trace of water shortages appeared in the 1800s. Since the 1900s, 11 billion people have died from drought and 1 billion have been affected. According to the UN, two-thirds of the world may face water shortages. Fourteen of the world's 20 megacities are facing drought conditions or water crises. Cape Town (South Africa) faced a major water crisis in 2018; São Paulo (Brazil) faced a huge water crisis in 2015, when it had to turn off its water supply for 12 hours, forcing many companies and factories to shut down. In 2008, Barcelona (Spain) had to import freshwater tankers from France. From 1995 to 2015, 90% of major disasters were weather-related, including storms, heatwaves, droughts, and floods. More than half of all weather-related disasters were floods. Floods affected 2.3 billion people and killed 157,000 in 20 years. This is often due to wastage of water from industries and households, water mismanagement, population growth, excessive agriculture usage, water pollution, and climate change. Bottled water companies often drain water from drought-facing areas and sell it back at higher prices. A possible first step in effective water conservation can be spreading awareness. As seen in Cape Town (2016-18) and Australia (1997-2009), during their water crises, the government put up electronic billboards containing the current level of water left for the city. This awareness among the people increased their willingness to take steps to preserve water. If similar steps are taken in other cities and regions facing a water crisis, enforcing required steps will be easier and people are more likely to be self-conscious in their water usage. Focusing on reducing usage in official settings and factories is a possible second step that is extremely vital in solving the water crisis. According to the USGS, 15.9 billion gallons of water are withdrawn daily in just the U.S. A situation where this has worked is in the UAE. The government there created a toolkit on how to measure their water usage, with tips and suggestions on how to reduce it. They joined a “corporate heroes network,” where they could take on challenges voluntarily to reduce their water usage to preset targets. On average, the companies that took on these challenges reduced their water usage by 35%. One company, which implemented all the possible tips and suggestions, managed to reduce their employee water consumption by a striking figure of 50%. A very important thing to note is that most indigenous and tribal communities have their own culturally prevalent water management methods. Bringing back these methods on a wide scale around the world will be a very useful, relatively cheap, and more easily acceptable solution. Another valuable step will be analyzing the measures taken by arid and water-scarce regions to manage water supplies and implementing them in other countries to prevent reaching a state where such measures become a necessity. For example, Namibia, one of the most arid countries, uses recycled water for drinking purposes. While this may not solve the water crisis, it does help ease the situation. The water crisis is a problem that haunts the entire human race, and it is a much more prevalent and urgent issue than many of us think it is. Raising awareness, making changes involving major industries and companies, and promoting indigenous and well-established methods of water conservation are a few steps that do not require extreme efforts, yet they have the potential to significantly ease the water crisis. All the water we need is here on earth; all we need to do is save it.
Comments