TEN RULES FOR GOVERNMENTS

1.     Not supply drinking water to agriculture

2.     Provide good drinking water and less potable water for sanitary use in houses.

3.     Provide water for all living organisms and make the waste of water very expensive.

4.     Change today’s habits in consuming water and forbid publicizing mineral water.

5.     Make buildings self-sufficient through rain water collection and recycling systems

6.    Make agriculture self-sufficient by stimulating superficial water collection, draining techniques and recycling practices

7.     Stop building big dams and encourage a micro-basin policy

8.     Reopen the big hydro-electric reservoirs and let the water follow its river courses

9.    Use traditional techniques for maintaining glaciers and abolish artificial snow

10.    Use a three-dimensional town planning scheme based on the water cycle – atmosphere, ground, underground – and adapt the cities to climate change by building garden-roofs, superficial collecting systems and draining belts for underground aquifer supply.

These seam like drastic or science-fiction measures, but we are talking about our immediate future in relation with the way such a precious resource is administered. It is true that water is present on our planet in great quantities, but why then should there be such an anxiety about drought and desertification? And why does water make so much profit?

On our planet a billion people are without drinking water and every day 300 children dye for thirst or for drinking unhealthy water. 150 million people will migrate in the next years from subsaharian Africa to Europe for the lack of water. People living in poor Countries, Madagascar for example, only have 10 litres of drinking water each per day which represents the minimum vital quantity. People living in the western Countries, like Italy, use from 350 to 500 litres each per day.

If these consumptions became those of 6 million people on our planet there would be no water left for anyone. On our planet there is plenty of water but it’s unequally shared out and mainly consists in the oceans, therefore it is salty and not drinkable. If we compare all the water present on the earth to a 5 litre container, fresh water represents only 1 tea-spoon. If we then subtract the freezed water of glaciers, the drinking water in aquifers and rain fall represents 1 single drop. Drinking water can be created in any situation through captation, channels, desalination or even atmospheric condensation. The average cost for this water is roughly 0.50 eurocent per 1000 litres. However, half a litre of bottled mineral water is sold at 2.90 euro.

This means about 6.000 times the price of its production. We are talking about stratospheric profits that not even oil and diamonds are capable of making. We are talking about exactly the same water. Bottled mineral water today is actually worse than tap water because of the aquifer pollution and transport and storage in plastic containers. These prices for bottled water are not only relative to rich Countries. In the bidonvilles of the undeveloped Countries, where it is even harder to find potable water, prices are even higher.

If this is the tendency, a Madagascan will soon have to spend his entire wage for buying water. In Italy as much as 70% of our potable water is used for agriculture. Because of this usage and thanks to the reservoirs built by Enel (Italy’s Electric Company) to produce hydro-electric power, the tributaries of the river Po have dried up and soon there’ll be nothing left of the Pianura Padana but a dusty moor. Agriculture devours water resources because it is organized on a vicious circle of phytosanitary products and pesticides that need great quantities of water to be absorbed and transform the soil into a plasticized surface incapable of absorbing rainwater.

Agriculture and industries must only use recycled water. Especially agriculture should turn back to a more natural cycle, using less water to stop pumping up the productivity for a better quality. The water quality in cities is very good, but since most Italians drink mineral water, 98% of this potable water is used for sanitary purposes. So the enormous costs that are faced by public companies to purify water are flushed away and the Italian people inflate with their money the budget of the 2 or 3 multinational companies who, despite the different labels, monopolize the mineral water market. Houses must therefore be provided with different types of water. A tap in the kitchen with good drinking water and less potable water, recycled or rainwater, for sanitary use.

Applying these simple rules would save money and cut unreasonable waste. Just think about the cost of energy for transporting mineral water and producing the plastic for the bottles. To make a plastic bottle as much as 30 times the quantity of water it will contain is consumed. We will get used to a new water culture as part of a greater ecological responsibility towards the earth and all living organisms, a necessary step to face the challenge of global climate change.

These seam like drastic or science-fiction measures, but we are talking about our immediate future in relation with the way such a precious resource is administered. It is true that water is present on our planet in great quantities, but why then should there be such an anxiety about drought and desertification? And why does water make so much profit?

On our planet a billion people are without drinking water and every day 300 children dye for thirst or for drinking unhealthy water. 150 million people will migrate in the next years from subsaharian Africa to Europe for the lack of water. People living in poor Countries, Madagascar for example, only have 10 litres of drinking water each per day which represents the minimum vital quantity. People living in the western Countries, like Italy, use from 350 to 500 litres each per day.

If these consumptions became those of 6 million people on our planet there would be no water left for anyone. On our planet there is plenty of water but it’s unequally shared out and mainly consists in the oceans, therefore it is salty and not drinkable. If we compare all the water present on the earth to a 5 litre container, fresh water represents only 1 tea-spoon. If we then subtract the freezed water of glaciers, the drinking water in aquifers and rain fall represents 1 single drop. Drinking water can be created in any situation through captation, channels, desalination or even atmospheric condensation. The average cost for this water is roughly 0.50 eurocent per 1000 litres. However, half a litre of bottled mineral water is sold at 2.90 euro.

This means about 6.000 times the price of its production. We are talking about stratospheric profits that not even oil and diamonds are capable of making. We are talking about exactly the same water. Bottled mineral water today is actually worse than tap water because of the aquifer pollution and transport and storage in plastic containers. These prices for bottled water are not only relative to rich Countries. In the bidonvilles of the undeveloped Countries, where it is even harder to find potable water, prices are even higher.

If this is the tendency, a Madagascan will soon have to spend his entire wage for buying water. In Italy as much as 70% of our potable water is used for agriculture. Because of this usage and thanks to the reservoirs built by Enel (Italy’s Electric Company) to produce hydro-electric power, the tributaries of the river Po have dried up and soon there’ll be nothing left of the Pianura Padana but a dusty moor. Agriculture devours water resources because it is organized on a vicious circle of phytosanitary products and pesticides that need great quantities of water to be absorbed and transform the soil into a plasticized surface incapable of absorbing rainwater.

Agriculture and industries must only use recycled water. Especially agriculture should turn back to a more natural cycle, using less water to stop pumping up the productivity for a better quality. The water quality in cities is very good, but since most Italians drink mineral water, 98% of this potable water is used for sanitary purposes. So the enormous costs that are faced by public companies to purify water are flushed away and the Italian people inflate with their money the budget of the 2 or 3 multinational companies who, despite the different labels, monopolize the mineral water market. Houses must therefore be provided with different types of water. A tap in the kitchen with good drinking water and less potable water, recycled or rainwater, for sanitary use.

Applying these simple rules would save money and cut unreasonable waste. Just think about the cost of energy for transporting mineral water and producing the plastic for the bottles. To make a plastic bottle as much as 30 times the quantity of water it will contain is consumed. We will get used to a new water culture as part of a greater ecological responsibility towards the earth and all living organisms, a necessary step to face the challenge of global climate change.

From Ecomediamagazine: interwiev with Pietro Laureano