It is encouraged to remember the tragedy of Imam Hussain (as) when we drink water. The holy Quran mentions water in several verses and highlights its miracles. Fatima Mahomed asks what do we really know about this bounty of Allah (swt)?

It might seem strange to be reading an article about water. It is a part of our everyday life; it is in fact essential to life, yet we rarely think about it, even when we need it. It is generally always there so requires little thought.

Facts about water

About 72% of the world’s surface is covered in water; 97% is held in the world’s oceans, 2% is frozen in polar ice caps, which leaves 1% to supply rivers, streams, reservoirs, lakes, underground water stores and the atmosphere.

The majority of the world’s water is salt water in the oceans, which is unfit for human consumption. Fresh water makes up a small percentage of the earth’s water supply and is crucial to sustain life on the planet. The Quran states:

“It is He who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one palatable and sweet, And the other salty and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, A partition that is forbidden to be passed” (Quran 25:53)

About two thirds of our bodies are made of water and our brains are made up of 85% water.

“We made from water every living thing” (Quran 21:30)

Our freshwater supplies, crucial to all living things, are only renewed by rainfall. Most would have studied the water cycle at school and know that heat from the sun causes the ocean water and other surface water to evaporate. The vapour is taken into the atmosphere with rising air currents where it cools and forms clouds that ultimately fall back to earth as precipitation, from which the cycle begins again.

The majority of the Earth’s freshwater is stored underground, just beneath the surface or deeper in underground reservoirs known as aquifers. Moving groundwater is crucial to us as it forms part of the water cycle and is replenished. Aquifers on the other hand, lie within bodies of rock; many closed off such that replenishing them is difficult and requires water to infiltrate deep into the ground.

Challenging issues

Our freshwater supplies are being stretched to the limit by a number of factors. Firstly, the world’s population is growing rapidly. To put this in numerical terms, the world’s population grew by 79 million in one year to reach 6.8 billion in July 2009 and is projected to reach 9.1 billion in 2050.

Allerd Stikker of the Amsterdam-based Ecological Management Foundation explains: “The issue today, put simply, is that while the only renewable source of freshwater is continental rainfall… [a finite amount of water], the world population keeps increasing…Therefore the availability of freshwater per head is decreasing rapidly”. The increase in population is coupled with mass migration to cities, putting an even greater strain on supplies.

Secondly, consumption of water per capita is increasing at an alarming rate. Historically people treasured and valued water. Nowadays, because water is on tap for most of us in the western world, we see it as something that will always be there when we want it; as a result we do not treasure it or respect it.

Occasionally, however, we are reminded of how important and essential water is, when for some reason, our water supply fails. All too often, however, we forget as soon as the pipes start to flow again. Taking an example from our communities; half empty bottled water handed out for iftaar (the breaking of the fast) were often discarded or left behind instead of the water being taken away to be drunk later. This was in a mosque, during the month of Ramadhan, when we should be even more aware of the value and scarcity of food and drink.

In spite of this, personal consumption accounts for c. 10% of water use. Industry and agriculture claim the remaining portion with consumption at 20-25 and 65-70% respectively and its demands are increasing. The manufacturing of cars, computers and other goods, uses vast quantities of water and we live in an age where these items are replaced every two to three years in some parts of the world.

A move to farming on an industrial scale, which has been driven by pressure on prices and regional and international agricultural policies, has seen water consumption increase enormously due to wastefulness. Changes in diets are also affecting consumption. It takes between 1000-1500 litres of water to produce a kilo of potatoes, maize or wheat; 4,600 litres of water to produce a kilo of chicken; and 42,500 litres of water to produce a kilo of beef.

The final major factor affecting the world’s water supplies is pollution. Factories, industrial farms and cities pour so many pollutants into our water system, it is a wonder that the system has not collapsed already. Chemicals, pesticides, fertilisers, herbicides, radioactive waste, road salt, oil, pollutants from the air, garbage and even untreated sewage in some parts of the developed and developing world are dumped or leaked into our water systems. It is not surprising that disease and illnesses result.

The facts are staggering; 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease and at any given time, the occupiers of half of the world’s hospital beds are patients suffering from a water-related disease. Approximately one in eight people lack access to safe water supplies.

Added to this is deforestation, the destruction of wetlands and urbanisation (paving over the ground) which accelerates water to run off into the oceans rather than allowing it to infiltrate into the ground and into aquifers. To meet our hungry appetites for water, water from aquifers is being tapped into at an alarming rate, such that extraction now far exceeds the rate at which it can be replenished.

The damning and diverting of water systems causes disease and gives rise to conflict. In some parts of the world, rivers are so heavily damned and overexploited that they fail to flow out to sea, and instead dry out before they reach the oceans. Many rivers run through a number of countries, those people closer to the source of the supply can damn and divert water at the peril of those living downstream, sometimes causing people to be ousted from their homeland. Tensions “have already resulted in conflict in the Middle East… Forty per cent of Israel’s groundwater supply originates in occupied territories and water scarcity has been an issue in past Arab-Israeli wars.

To make matters worse

Organisations have recognised the issue and are raising the alarm. Unfortunately, we live in an era of liberal markets, despite the recent credit crunch and subsequent supposed retraction whereby everything is up for sale.

At the World Water Forum in March 2000, despite a lobby insisting that water is recognised as a ‘universal human right,’ water was designated as a ‘need’ “so that the private sector, through the market, would have the right and responsibility to provide this vital resource on a for-profit basis”.

Throughout the world, the provision of water and sanitation services is being privatised and a series of mergers and acquisitions has resulted in a few large multinationals controlling much of this sector. These corporations are rarely accountable to the people and governments, but instead seek to increase the wealth of their shareholders by selling to the highest bidder.

The CEO of the global water giant, Suez, laid bare this fundamental contradiction, underlying the commoditisation of water: “Water is an efficient product…It is a product which normally would be free, and our job is to sell it. But it is a product which is absolutely necessary for life.”  It is the equivalent of selling air, and doing it for a profit!  According to the Shari’ah (Islamic law), privatisation of a water source is forbidden.

Privatisation is causing problems in many parts of the world, both in developed and developing countries. Water prices have risen, thereby out-pricing the poor. Infrastructure upgrades are often delayed or fall short of what is needed. Governments in some parts of the world have been forced to sell their water supplies or privatise their water industry by those to whom they are indebted, often at the peril of their citizens.

‘In a special feature on the global water industry in May 2000, Fortune magazine declared: “Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations”.’  It is, as the title of the book and film states, “Blue Gold”.

The way forward

In spite of this, people are fighting back by insisting upon independent reviews before projects are commissioned and by protesting and demanding a return to public control of water supplies; there have been some successes.

However, we are at a point where action is needed on a larger scale. Unfortunately this is not coming from the top, so instead it needs to take place at the grassroots level to ensure the political willpower shifts. Ultimately, what is needed is a global consensus to protect and preserve water supplies for all species.

We need to take action and take notice. We also need to change our own behaviour and consume less, not just water but also goods that guzzle water in their manufacturing processes; we need to change our diets and use environmentally friendly products rather than ones with unnatural chemical products. We need to treasure and respect water and educate our friends and families.

We may only be on this earth for a finite term but we need to protect the earth for “He it is Who has made you as (His) Viceregents on earth and raised some of you above others in ranks, that He may try you in what He bestowed upon you” (Quran 6:165)

The holy month of Muharram is a time when the family of the Prophet (pbuh) suffered as water supplies to them were cut off. The death and devastation that followed was tragic on a grand scale. Let us not allow this to happen again, this time to our fellow human beings and all of the world’s living species.

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References:

1- Water Facts. 15 Amazing facts about water (Blithfield Education Centre)

2- Blue Gold, The battle against corporate theft of the world’s water (Barlow, M. Clarke, T., 2002)

3- UN Economic and Social Affairs. World Population Prospects. The 2008 Revision

4- Water.org (various articles)