I don’t believe anything is more exasperating than listening to lectures on ‘drinking’ by a teetotaler. Nevertheless there is nothing more important to one’s life than water and my drinking choice is cool, clear water. I am also adamant about the role of water in our lives.

Undoubtedly we in western society lead the world in wasteful practices and there’s no greater example than our approach to water. While many countries lack adequate supplies for its citizens, we not only have it to spare but use our abundance on lawns and gardens. We also pay through the nose for systems to get rid of our excesses in the forms of storm sewers and means of disposing of household wastes.

Food supply is big business, particularly in terms of international trade. Much of our food produce is imported from California. There, production of crops depends on irrigation, drawing fossil water for irrigation of arid land from the Ogallala aquifer, water stored under several states during the ice ages. This uses stored water far faster than it can be replaced by rainfall. Reports warn us that the water table is declining by several feet per year.

A TVO documentary was of an Indian farmer questioning the vast use of water for production of crops for exports. He noted that many farmers were drawing water from ever-increasing soil depths, having to drill for 500 feet or more, which necessitated costly borrowing. Bankruptcy was the only answer for many unable to repay the loans. He equated this to exporting valuable water in the form of crops while thousands were losing homes for its lack.

The documentary highlighted a worldrenowned Indian conservation activist, Vandena Shiva. She has written books about the use of mulches and shelterbelts to protect crops from evaporation, water needed for the maintenance of soil moisture. She also strongly opposed national policies based on ‘growing’ export dollars rather than meeting the food needs of people.

Stewardship of soil moisture is a key feature in a ‘State of the World, 2011’ article by Sandra Postel (Getting more crop per drop).

To increase farm income in sub-Saharan Africa it is essential to “supplement soil moisture during the growing season and have access to affordable irrigation technologies that are specially designed for small holder farmers.”

Obviously, the cheapest form of irrigation is gravity-fed water diverted from high elevation sources.

We experienced miles of local farms where goals were achieved by assuring moisture needed by their crops. Probably the most outstanding were hillside rice paddies in northern Philippines.

Terraces were built and a high-elevation water source was fed from one level to the next and the next and the next, until the whole slope appeared more like a series of lakes, each gently sloped to allow the flow of water from one to the other.

In Kenya, farms in the arid Machakos region were terraced to form a series of plateaus. These provided moisture conservation but also facilitated farm operations.

In different parts of Africa and Asia, local villages employed bamboo ‘pipes’ to carry water from the hills. An entrepreneur in one West African village created a fish pond with such addition of running water, providing food and sales revenue for the community.

In Negros, central Philippines, an NGO operated bush nurseries in isolated forest lands growing seedlings to re-forest illegally logged forest areas. Without transport access, the nurseries were only accessible by foot, providing the basis for a large reforestation project.

In Sandra Postel’s article it was noted that the highly successful green revolution was primarily due to large inputs of irrigation water. Additions of imported fertilizers and pesticides were only effective to the extent of moisture availability to plant roots.

Canadians on the whole appear to be unaware of just how we mis-use our abundance of water in an age when so many globally suffer from water shortages.

I was told of the home of one Hollywood star in arid lands outside Los Angeles where a sign was posted, “Don’t spend water as if it were money”.

We are most fortunate living in this land of plenty.

We mustn’t abuse the privilege.