Water - soon to be more precious than gold?

I’ve just returned from a weekend surfing in El Salvador, down around the beautiful Pacific coast near  La Libertad.  Whenever I travel on trips such as this, I try and talk with the locals with the aim of developing an understanding of how they view their environment, whether they have noticed any changes in it,  whether there is an awareness of “climate change” and its causes and effects. I find that this process generally leads to some interesting conversations and surprising insights, and is a very valuable learning process for me. This time around in El Salvador was no different…

Access to a reliable, safe water supply in El Salvador has been an issue since the civil war (which finished in 1992) which destroyed much of El Salvador’s infrastructure, damaging access to water points for many communities. For a large majority of these communities – already struggling with poverty before the war – the resources required to rebuilt the infrastructure were not available. Today, the high cost of water, unjust distribution, contamination and ongoing pollution of water sources continues to create issues across the country.

Arriving late on a Wednesday night, I slept the night at a small family-run comedor (restaurant) on the beach.  In order to have a shower, the pump had to be switched on first (and was quickly switched off after) – which I assumed was to save money.  The next day, I moved down the beach to a small hostel with camping facilities and a few rooms – a fairly basic setup but in a great spot, with a concert that night for the long weekend. After setting up and settling in,  I discovered one thing – there was no water. Not for toilets.  Not for showers – a fact that I was slightly worried about considering they were expecting more than 100 people to show up (the pump did end up being switched on for a few hours later that night, although there was no water again in the morning).

Having now had issues with water twice now in as many days, I started thinking about the impact that climate change would have on El Salvador’s water supply. I got talking with a couple of guys from San Salvador who were staying at the hostel, and asked them whether access to water was an issue. They thought about it, shrugged, and told me they didn’t think it was really a problem…okay, maybe it’s just me.

The next day, I headed up to stay with some new-found friends at their house in the Lago de Coatepeque, just outside from the capital.  The lake, in the crater of a volcano, is stunningly beautiful – one of my favourite places in Central America so far. The house was also amazing, and definitely a few steps up from the accommodation at the beach – although with one similarity: no water. The pump was broken, and any water that we needed for washing or showering we had to carry up from the lake in a bucket.  While water was available, I found that the simple fact of not having run water definitely affected the sanitation and hygiene levels…the dishes didn’t feel clean, I didn’t feel clean (even with repeated swims in the lake), and the bathrooms certainly weren’t clean.

On the drive back to Guatemala, I kept thinking about how much of an impact having access to water makes on the quality of life – and on how vulnerable and reliant we are on this precious resource. Time magazine recently reported on the water shortage in Mexico City, where approximately 5 million people went without access to water over the Easter weekend due to drastic water shortages in the city’s reservoirs. It’s a similar story that can be found all over the world, and there is no doubt that the world is facing a serious water crisis. Already, one person in five worldwide does not have access to clean drinking water – a figure that is only going to worsen as the pressures from climate change and population growth place increasing stresses on limited supplies.

As with many of the other threats posed by climate change, the water crisis needs to be addressed urgently. Individual action is required on a global scale – but how do we stimulate people to take action? Perhaps we should stage a similar shutdown of water supplies for a few days in cities such as Sydney, New York or London. Would this be sufficient to spark action? Or merely indignation? I can’t help but feel that many people in the richer countries consider access to water as a right, rather than as a privilege. Personally, I think that water will be the Achilles Heel of the developed world…if the taps run dry in London, New York or Sydney, how long before houses are left as vulnerable as the poor communities on the outskirts of Mexico City?