It’s that time of the year when water is very much on our minds. Either we have been enjoying the summer sunshine too much and have to compensate with a hose-pipe ban or there’s too much of the stuff and we’re all complaining that summers are just not what they used to be. Well, I don’t know about that – I can remember many a seaside holiday in Devon, dressed in our pacamacs and wishing we were somewhere else dry and warm.
Water is so important to our daily lives and to our worship. From the moment we enter the church there is the font where our spiritual life begins. Water is also part of the Eucharist. For other faiths it is an important part of preparing for worship.
Each year water becomes more important and there is no getting away from the fact that there is no such thing as ‘new’ water. Whatever rains today has rained before. There is the same amount now as when the world began, but the demands on it grow by the day. And yet we turn on a tap and assume it will start to flow – as much as we may demand.
But around the world there is an increasing awareness of the links between water and food now we know that 70% of all global freshwater is used in agriculture. That’s fine if the rest of demands fit within the 30% left. But people at the United Nations are estimating that food demands will increase by 60% by the middle of this century and then the figures don’t add up and the world will really be short of water. Population growth, shifts towards more water-intensive diets, not to mention rising requirements for water to produce energy for industry and homes all increase demand for limited water resources while more variable climate make their availability in the right quantity at the right time less reliable.
Latest estimates have put food waste in the world at 1.3 billion tonnes – a huge amount and if all that food has involved water then that means a lot of wasted water.
What we have to hope is that those responsible for food chains are totally committed to reducing waste and we should remember that the last link in the food chain is in our homes. If we waste food then we are wasting water too. Yes, it can be a pain if it rains on our holiday or the lawn is parched, but if we remember that water is a very special part of our worship that should help us to realise it is something we should value – every single drop!
David Shreeve, Environmental Adviser to the Archbishops’ Council and also Executive Director of The Conservation Foundation, which he co-founded in 1982 with David Bellamy. (visit: www.conservationfoundation.co.uk/)
for Parish Pump
Water is getting scarcer