The cry of the Ancient Mariner, if indeed it was he, is as appropriate today as it was then, only now we are talking about water shortages worldwide.

A recent comment was that this cannot be true, as the water does not vanish.

Strictly speaking this is true. The water cycle is a closed loop, apart from insignificant amounts lost through disassociation into constituent parts H2O and that lost to space, but that does not mean there are no water shortages.

We are consuming more and more water, whilst at the same time our sources are shrinking.

If we take water out of a river, then there is less to flow downstream, take too much, and the river no longer reaches the sea.

Worldwide, rivers are drying up, water tables are falling, lakes are shrinking, glaciers are melting.

Lake Chad was once a prominent landmark from outer space, it has now all but vanished and is difficult to locate. Lake Chad has shrunk by 95% compared with its size in the 1960s, soon it will be no more, just a name on a map.

There is not a single country that does not now face water shortages. Apart from the Sahel, it is largely a story that goes unseen, as until the water runs out, how many people know the reservoirs are nearly empty, the wells and deep bore holes are running dry.

In some places, deep aquifers are falling at a rate of 3 metres a year. Oil-well technology is having to be used to drill deep bore holes of 1 km, sometimes 2 km deep.

In parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, the water table has fallen by 30 metres. Thousands of wells in farms in the Great Plains have run dry.

The Colorado River rarely makes it to the sea. The Nile is at times reduced to a trickle.

Glaciers are melting. When snow falls in the mountains, the water is slowly released during the summer as the snows melt and the glaciers melt. This gives a steady flow of melt water all year round.

With global warming, the snow falls as rain, creating flash floods in the winter, then drought in the summer.

Large parts of the world and a significant proportion of the world's population depends upon snow melt.

Global warming is making a bad situation worse. Drought, followed by flash floods.

If the tundra melts, huge amounts of fossil carbon will be released into the atmosphere.

Farmers are losing out to cities in the water wars.

The southeast of England is facing its worst drought in a century. A hosepipe ban has been implemented across the region, and yet, golf courses are exempt.

Eco-warriors are threatening direct action against any golf course wasting water.

The Rotten Borough of Rushmoor has decided to spend £170,000 on a drainage and irrigation system for Southwood Golf Course in Farnborough.

The golf course is sited on a flood plain. Cove Brook drains the nearby hills. Height clearance for Farnborough Airport resulted in tens of thousands of trees being destroyed on the hills, increasing the rate of run off. As this flowed through the airport, increased drainage was installed. During heavy rain in the winter, the golf course is flooded, putting the golf course out of action.

Drainage of the golf course will put people living downstream in Cove at greater risk of flooding, an area already designated by the Environment Agency at risk of flooding.

Sprinklers are to be installed to keep the greens watered. Sprinkler irrigation is the most inefficient method of irrigation.

A profligate use of water for the privileged few when the area is facing water shortages.

If the golf course is not viable, it should be turned into a Country Park, wet heath and woodland, that turns into a lake in the winter.

Typical irrigation systems are 40% efficient in their use of water. A drip-irrigation system reaches 95% efficiency. With sprinklers, the applied water is lost through wind drift and evaporation

In Arizona, farmers have managed to achieve better than 95% efficiency with sub-surface drip lines.

In Curitiba in southern Brazil, the flood risk is managed by working with nature, not against.

Rivers that had previously been canalised (worsening the risk of flooding) were turned into linear parks, low-lying land prone to flooding was turned into parks.

Citizens of Curitiba have 52 square metres of park per capita, more than New York, more than any city worldwide, four times the UN recommendations. When it rains the parks become a little waterlogged, the ducks float a few feet higher.

A systems approach, that not only solves problems, but also yields additional benefits.

We can attempt to close the loop, by protecting forests, using less water.

The value of trees far exceeds their timber value.

By 2025, it is expected that 3.4 billion people will be living in countries defined as water-scarce. It takes about 3,000 litres of water to produce our daily food ration, about 1,000 times what we need for drinking purposes. Water-related disasters such as tsunamis, floods and droughts are the second most frequent and devastating natural disasters after windstorms. Between 1991 and 2000,over 665,000 people died in 2,557 natural disasters, of which 90 per cent were water-related events. Hydropower supplies at least 50 per cent of electricity production in 66 countries, and 19 per cent in 24 countries. Worldwide, small hydropower development is expected to grow by a further 60 per cent by 2010. One hundred and forty-five nations have territory within a transboundary basin, and 21 lie entirely within one. In the last half century, approximately 200 treaties have been signed concerning transboundary water basins. In nearly all the world’s major religions, water is attributed important symbolic and ceremonial properties sanitation One dollar invested in water supply and sanitation can provide an economic return of up to 34 times, depending on the region. In developing countries, more than 90 per cent of sewage and 70 per cent of industrial wastewater is dumped untreated into surface water. Irrigation increases yields of most crops by 100 to 400 per cent. Over the next 30 years, 70 per cent of gains in cereal production will come from irrigated land.

There always are solutions, it is just that politicians, especially those at local level, are too dumb to see, and too often in the pocket of vested interests.

Web

 http://www.worldwater.org
 http://www.worldlakes.org
 http://www.worldwaterday.org
 http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade

Ref

Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006

Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton, Running Pure: The importance of forest protected areas to drinking water, World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use, August 2003

Lindsey Eudo-Mitchell, Council's golf course irrigation 'may cause floods': Facility should become a community park, Farnborough News, 14 April 2006

Paul Hawken, Amory B Lovins & L Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, 1999

Keith Parkins, Curitiba - Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, Biotech Indymedia, 5 April 2006
 http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/04/5036.shtml

Keith Parkins, Council increases risk of flooding, Indymedia UK, 7 April 2006
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/337799.html

Keith Parkins, Activists target golf courses for wasting water, Indymedia UK, 8 April 2006
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/337852.html

Sandra Postel, Pillar of Sand, Norton, 1999

Sandra Postel and Brian Richter, Rivers for Life, Island Press, 2003

Jen Rivett, Council funds golf course irrigation, Farnborough News, 31 March 2006

Water for Life Decade [2005-2015], UN Water, September 2005

Ernst von Weizsacker, Amory B Lovins & L Hunter Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, 1997