Have you ever gone without driving your car for a day? And for that same period have you ever gone without a pint of water? The answers to these two would give you an inkling of the relative merits of any oil v/s water debate. Which is more precious?

Environmentalists debated this very question during the International World Water Day, an annual United Nations event that was held in Istanbul this year. The answer to this debate though quite conclusive is scarier than the thought of a world without oil. The agenda of the meet was quite clear cut - call attention to the sustainable management of fresh water resources.

Water is an absolute human need. We can let a month by without food but only seven without water. Oil pales in comparison.

With this paradigm, the environmentalists touched upon two main facets of the issue. The challenges of delivering fresh clean water and the economics behind it. When we look around we might see bountiful supplies of water, but it is here the danger lurks of taking such a sight for granted. We have abundant water…whether it be in the oceans or the rivers…but it is not clear, clean and drinkable. Most of our so though supply is salty, dirty and of course polluted.

Global warming and weather change can trigger off unforeseen calamities if there isn’t a turnaround. Fresh water supplies are on the decline. Rising sea levels will precipitate salinity of natural water reservoirs making this water undrinkable. In India, the once fertile Sunderbans is seeing increasing levels of salinity. In large once fertile tracts of Central China, the march of desertification is on.  

Jonathan Greenblatt, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles says,

“As climate change accelerates and we see a changing hydrological cycle, diminishing access to resources, there are direct human impacts that are water-related.”
He himself is in the thick of things as he was one person who advised the Obama transition team on civic engagement and national service. He stresses that we need to focus on the issues of water (he calls it ‘blue’) with the same seriousness as we have concentrated on the ‘green’, that is the environment.

Focusing on the imperativeness of water management also makes sound economic sense. The World Health Organization says that every $1 spent on water and sanitation can bring economic benefits averaging between $7 and $12.

Promotion of clean water and sanitation has far reaching economic benefits that are both direct and collateral. As the WHO places it –

Health care agencies could save $7 billion a year, employers could gain 320 million productive days a year for workers in the 15-to-59 age range, there could be an extra 272 million school attendance days annually and an added 1.5 billion healthy days for children under the age of five.

The Natural Resources Defense Council also says in its blog that an investment of $11.3 billion a year gives a return of $83 billion a year in increased productivity and health.

That’s reason enough to be gung-ho about the prospects of clean water and our future. But is it obvious enough to those who matter? That’s fodder for another debate.