Water: The nectar of life and the most important resource in the world - opinion
The preproduction and provision of clean water should be the developed world’s highest priority and the Abrahamic religion’s moral imperative.
Bathers soak in the hot water of natural springs in Kibbutz Merom Golan in the Golan Heights.(photo credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS)ByWALTER BINGHAM
There is something that concerns everyone, regardless of race, religion, or political view. We all use it every day. It’s the nectar of life. “Water, water, everywhere. Nor any drop to drink” wrote the English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797 in his poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." He explains the irony of how the presence of water in abundance is of no use to the sailors. But much has changed for sailors in the past 328 years, and water is no longer a problem in today’s modern ships. Since that time, we have learned a lot about the wider world and, more recently, about the environment.
That subject has stimulated much debate among the nations of the world. Countless hours of air time and hundreds of newspaper and magazine columns have been filled with commentary on every possible aspect of our natural milieu. Days and weeks of international conferences have taken place, and empty words of politicians masquerading as stewards of the environment have echoed around the venues discussing the veracity of climate change.
One of the conclusions of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in 2022 was the demand for low-emission products, yet world leaders purporting to be experts had more than 1,000 flights of private jets going in and out of airports serving Davos for that meeting, emitting as much CO2 as 350,000 average cars over that period.
It is true that ice is melting at the poles of our globe and that glaciers are sliding into the oceans, although experts disagree on the reasons. The received opinion is a rise in temperature, while others try to show a regular periodic cycle of these events. Whatever the reasons, it causes the water level of the oceans to rise, and that endangers the residents of many of the low-lying South Pacific islands, whose pleading voices are heard loud and clear. Even parts of the Netherlands, reclaimed from the sea, would have to revert to their place of origin.
Water: Its importance and its dangers
Water is a powerful constituent of our environment that is more difficult to control than fire. It is intertwined with life and covers over seventy percent of the Earth’s surface.
Brine water flows into the Mediterranean Sea after passing through a desalination plant in the coastal city of Hadera, Israel. (credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS)
Water was the original medium for the emergence of life itself, as stated in the second sentence of the Bible. “When the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the divine presence hovered upon the surface of the waters,” probably referring to the sea.
Despite its widespread existence, clean fresh water is rare, comprising less than one percent of the total. However, many of the underdeveloped areas of the world are heavily dependent on it for their livelihood. But lack of adequate precipitation can occur in any part of the world, even in North America, where the great drought in what is now the northwestern United States lasted from 1276 until 1299; or in Ethiopia, where it caused a serious famine from 1982 until 1985. And eastern Australia suffered a serious drought for eight successive years from 2001.
The effects of drought are crop damage, dried-up river beds, and increased dust storms, as well as risk to wildlife. The economic impact is shown by an increase in the cost of food and water. People and animals can go without food for some days, but water is the source of life; dehydration is a fast killer. On the other hand, too much water can also be a threat to life. Floods are caused by hurricanes in the northern hemisphere and typhoons south of the equator. They start when warm moist air rises from the ocean and forms into thick clouds made up of water droplets. When they get heavier than the updraft, the clouds shed the water faster than the saturated ground can absorb. When this occurs in low-pressure systems, those water-bearing clouds rotate in the rapidly increasing winds and progress from tropical depressions to hurricanes, with the consequential thunderstorms and floods.
The effect is structural damage, electrical outages, and transport interruptions, causing shortages of food and other essential items. One of the areas that is hurricane prone is the southwest of the United States, where the warm waters of the gulf add strength to the already existing hurricane conditions. So, lack of fresh water, or even too much of the nectar of life, can cause death and destruction.
Israel is at the forefront of many technological fields and is a leader in water technology. There are five large water desalination plants in the country that provide almost all our tap water, as well as several sewage filtration plants that are used to provide water for agriculture.
Israel uses this expertise to send its experts and technicians to many countries in the world and to teach and install systems that maximize production and the use of clean water. An important example is drip irrigation, which provides just the right amount of water for horticulture and floriculture. There are now mobile units mounted on trucks that can extract pure clean drinking water from the air. That’s another Israeli invention and development.
In another sphere, water plays an important part in the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, and in our biblical history. Some examples are the great flood and Noah’s ark; God parting the Red Sea during the exodus from Egypt; Moses hitting the rock in the desert, which provided water for the people; the mikveh, the ritual bath; the Sukkot harvest festival when we pray for rain; and the blessing we recite every time we ritually wash our hands. In the writings of Jeremiah, the prophet describes God as “the spring of living water” (verses 2:13 and 17.13).
Bearing that in mind, the preproduction and provision of clean water should be the developed world’s highest priority and the Abrahamic religion’s moral imperative.
There is one thing that has puzzled me for a long time. Hardly any location in the United States is immune from disasters caused by weather. Some areas suffer annually from hurricanes and floods. Power lines are broken, electrical junction boxes are damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are without electricity, sometimes for weeks. Every year, millions of dollars are spent on restoring the electric grid. It reminds me of Einstein’s famous dictum. It is strange that in a country that has one of the most technically advanced systems in the world, apparently no effort is being made to place power lines below ground, an investment that in the long run would save billions.
Perhaps the Elon Musk-Vivek Ramaswamy partnership in President-elect Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency will list this as a priority on their agenda. ■
Walter Bingham, who turns 101 on January 5, 2025, holds Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest working journalist and oldest active radio host.
