The year 2003 was the International Year of Fresh Water (www.wateryear2003.org). On October 16, the Dag Hammerschuld Auditorium was the setting for a briefing entitled ‘Water of Life: Fresh Perspectives on the World’s Water Crisis’. The hall was filled to overflowing. The briefing, and day-long programme, one of the most inspiring ever, came about because of the networking efforts of Martha Gallahue of the National Service Conference of the AEU with the UN Department of Social Affairs, the Values Caucus, and the Earth Values Caucus cooperating to bring an ethical perspective to this vital issue. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

All of human life depends on fresh water. Only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, and three-quarters of that is frozen in ice caps. Currently 40% of the world’s population is living in areas with moderate-to-high water stress, and water use is increasing faster than population growth. Unevenly distributed throughout the world, some countries have it in abundance, others are severely deprived.

With every flush of a toilet, we in the richer countries use up the same amount of water used by an average person in the developing world for every need in a day. Unsafe water and sanitation cause an estimated 80% of all disease in the developing world. Some 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with unsafe water and poor sanitation hygiene. Girls are often not permitted to attend school because of the unsafe conditions caused by lack of proper latrines. Water used for irrigation can be unavailable because of cost, or is unfit for drinking. Women, the water carriers and primary users of water, bear the greatest burden of its misuse and scarcity. Clearly, increasing the supply of water and maintaining its purity is a matter of life and death.

Only a few countries are wealthy enough to use desalination. Kuwait, Japan, and Italy, as well as the United States use some desalinated water. Saudi Arabia uses desalination to meet 70% of its drinking water needs. Desalination will become cheaper with increased demand and improved technology, but it will remain out of reach for poorer countries.

However the simpler technology of inexpensive ecological principles can provide answers. Dr John Todd, a professor at the University of Vermont, and founder of Water Stewards, Inc., is a water doctor who applies ecological principles to provide low cost and sustainable solutions. Fu Jong, a city in China with streets fouled by a sewage canal, has been transformed by a ribbon of plants which flourish on sewage, protecting the cleanliness of estuaries and bays. In water-starved Kenya, the construction of dirt pans to collect rain water has the extra benefit that the moist soil surrounding these minireservoirs produces fertile kitchen gardens. Similar projects are taking place in Nepal and India. With political will, South Africa has performed the remarkable feat of making fresh water available to half of its deprived population, an enormous improvement in seven short years.

Whatever the method, in projects involving cooperation between government and private industry, government must ensure that the benefits are fairly distributed. Solutions do exist. An ethical perspective joined with technical ingenuity and political will can do what needs to be done.

Sylvain and Phyllis Ehrenfeld