WATER CRISIS EXACERBATED BY TOURISM IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Years ago, I met an old Bedouin woman in Abu Dhabi who said her greatest joy was being able to turn on a tap after years of drawing well water in the desert.

Thanks to oil wealth she is one of the lucky ones, but today nearly 9 million people, mainly in developing countries, live without access to safe water and proper sanitation.

Clean drinking water is a right, not a necessity, for every person on the planet and as the world population grows and aquifers shrink, future conflicts will arise over water. And not over oil as in the not so distant past.

The rationale for water usage dates back to a vast dam built to store water for workers quarrying stone for the Pharoahs. In Southern Arabia, the Sabaeans also constructed the mighty Marib Dam. The Sumerians, Akkadians and Babylonians were all skilled canal builders. Ancient falaj like the one pictured, are still in use in Oman.

But when you think that the shadouf (a bucket and pulley contraption for raising water) was invented some 2400 years ago: is it not shameful that spacecraft are sent to the Moon before the Earth`s peoples have a proper water supply?

The situation is especially critical for many poor countries in Africa and Asia which have become dependent on tourism for revenue, when tourism is the biggest water consumer of all.

The FAO estimates that in 55 days, 100 hotel guests use the water equivalent to the needs of 100 urban families over two years. An 18-hole golf course soaks up the requirements of 100 Malay farmers.

Many NGO`s are directing their efforts to supplying villages with drinking water and while travel writers can do their bit, the onus is on travel agents to stress to tourists - particularly anyone visiting East African resorts, currently suffering the most severe drought in decades - to consider water usage.

Shower with your partner (bathe in the sea) and don`t allow the sheets to be changed on a daily basis. You can turn on a tap in your hotel, but local communities may not have access to the infrastructure ensuring your supply.

c.Christine Osborne

Image: Falaj in the interior of Oman.

Source: www.copix.co.uk

WATER NOT MOON WALKS

I remember sitting around a television in Sydney watching man walk on the moon, yet as we acknowledge this achievement, forty years on, 20% of the world`s population still does not have access to a safe water supply.

Since the moon landing in 1969, the population on Earth has nearly doubled with one child estimated to die every 25 seconds, due to unsafe water quality. Yet now a chest-thumping NASA official speaks of new Space endeavours. I am not a luddite, but is this not hugely offensive to the millions of have-nots in the developing world?

Women in Africa, India and Yemen still have to walk, sometimes up to 4 miles a day, or to climb 1000 feet down a mountain, to fetch drinking water. You can visit places such as Manila and Colombo, capital cities no less, where tourists can soak in a hotel spa-bath while outside people are still washing under a stand tap.

Further spending on space trips, either to the Moon or to Mars, cannot be justified until such anomalies are rectified and everyone on Earth has clean water which is a basic need, as well as a right.

c.Christine Osborne

Image: Washing under a stand tap, Colombo

Source: www.copix.co.uk