Water is Life

In Canada, the fear of a water crisis is not a prominent one. Everyday with a twist of the tap, what seems like limitless supplies of fresh water flow into our homes. But even in the country that possesses one fifth of the world's freshwater supply, threatening strains are being imposed on this vital resource. 

These strains are magnified when analyzing water shortage on a global scale. If we look at a satellite image of Earth, 71% of that image is blue, water. But of that 71%, only 2.53% is fresh water. 1% of that fresh water is unfrozen, and less than half of that 1% is accessible for human consumption. These numbers may not seem to be in our favour, but this amount of water has sustained our survival on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years. 

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This may lead to the question "Is their really a water crisis?"


We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  

             ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
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The fact is that this strict percentage of available water is experiencing many strains due to pollution, mis-management, overconsumption and climate change. 20%of the world's population, nearly one billion people, lacks adequate supplies of fresh water. 

How is the flow of water, the largest flow of any material in the biosphere, under such a deep threat?

According to scientist and activist Vandana Shiva,"the water crisis is a human created crisis within the last ten years. Its not as much a water shortage crisis as it is a water management crisis". We have begun taking advantage of this finite resource by exploiting it in unsustainable ways; the average Canadian uses 350 L of water a day, and the average household uses 1,400 L of water a day.  But personal use is not the greatest to blame for this water crisis. 70% of available fresh water is used for industrial agriculture and farming.  As food production is essential, its wasteful practices are detrimental to our freshwater supply both in matter of consumption and pollution. 

Our overuse of this important resource is definitely a huge cause in its depleting quality and quantity, but the privatization of water plays a big role in its diminishing availability. The privatization or "commodification" of water encourages the idea that water is like any other good that can be bought or sold. This ideology brings up an important question: "Is water a fundamental human right, or a commodity?". The book Whose Water Is It states that "Economics tell us that scarcity has value, but does that mean that water, regarded for millennia as essentially free and boundless, should now be bought and sold like any other good?". 

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
                            -W.H. Auden

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The issues that arise from water scarcity are complex and difficult to address. Nonetheless, they must be attended to immediately, as all life on Earth depends on it.Water is the most fundamental human need, and its scarcity causes clashes between neighbours, between countries. As stated by the U.N. Secretary General in 2001:" rivalries over water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future". The UN also declared in 2003 that the "water crisis is serious", and that "it is getting worse and will continue to do so unless corrective measures are taken".

Now is the time to question, to educate, to act. Water is the most important resource on this planet, and its protection and sustainability must be everyone's priority. 

"Water cannot be created, it must be shared".

Check out the film "FLOW", you can watch it on youtube!