Water is a foolish thing to take for granted. We do, of course. Even here, in the parched and ever-expanding West.
We read of drought and bitter water-rights disputes among states and turn the page, confident that clean, fresh water will flow when we turn on our taps. It always does.
Yet 2 billion people worldwide, most in Asia and Africa, lack clean water and modern sanitation. Three million people die annually from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water supplies, two-thirds of them children. Half of the hospital beds worldwide are occupied by people with water-borne diseases. It is a crisis that dwarfs even the AIDS pandemic.
These are some of the stunning statistics included in "Keepers of the Spring," Fred Pearce's remarkably well-researched book. The British-based environmentalist, who has reported on scientific and developmental issues in 54 countries, deftly juxtaposes stories of great dams, which proved to be ecological disasters, against small, yet ingenious irrigation projects in desert villages that proved effective for centuries.
The secrets of extracting and diverting water in natural ways, discovered by ancient peoples from the deserts of the
Keepers of the Spring
Reclaiming Our Water in an Age of Globalization
Island Press, 252 pages, $26
Middle East to the American Southwest, have been largely forgotten, Pearce writes. For example, digging gently sloping tunnels to bring water from mountainsides to orchards and fields many miles away is an all-but-lost art.
These man-made, underground rivers go by many names. In Iran, where they originated and are most numerous, they are known by the Persian word qanats. First dug about 3,000 years ago, qanats maximize the meager flows from mountain springs.
"At one time," Pearce writes, "qanat digging in Persia must have been one of the biggest civil engineering enterprises on the planet, easily on a par with construction of the Egyptian pyramids."
But modern engineers from the United States to the Middle East to India and China have fallen in love with massive hydroelectric projects. Dams are built to satisfy the demands of exploding populations for clean water and hydroelectric power. Aside from the detrimental effects on ecosystems and the tragic displacement of people, the best argument against the huge hydraulic projects under way in China and elsewhere, Pearce writes, is that "The recent history of these massive civil-engineering projects reveals outcomes ranging from merely disappointing to catastrophic."
He argues that the solution to the looming water crisis does not rest on any "one technology or even a suite of technologies." It requires rethinking our approach to water use and management, and charging consumers realistically for something many see as basically free. A new "water ethic" must be embraced worldwide, "one that encourages the careful allocation and use of water as community property, property on which the survival of entire peoples depends."
The movement to privatize water – the essential element for all life – presents a terrifying prospect.
In order for life to survive, Pearce says, consumption by the developed world must be curtailed, every use of water examined. Agriculture, the largest user – and waster – of water on the planet, must be closely scrutinized.
Innovative ways of collecting, recycling and distributing water, like tapping fog along a desert shoreline, must be employed. Simple changes, like low-flow toilets and drip irrigation, have proved invaluable in places like California.
But the critical step – recognizing the worldwide water crisis – must come first. And that requires leadership and cooperation among nations, a
commodity more scarce these days than summer rain in Death Valley.
Mark Sauer is a Union-Tribune staff writer.