The planet Terra, known as Earth. The planet of water, home
to the spice of life. This spice controls empires. This spice extends life.
This spice expands consciousness. This spice is vital for travel. And most of
the spice that we know to exist in liquid form, exists on only one planet,
Terra.
Dihydrogen Monoxide – The spice of life. Also known as
water. This planet is 71% covered by water, and it’s absolutely vital to all
life we know. In fact, all life as we know it originally started in the water,
over 4 billion years ago. And here in Namibia, we are quite aware of the
importance of water.
Water has also been the herald of civilization. Our earliest
ancestors were hunters and gatherers, constantly searching for food and water.
It was the discovery of abundant freshwater that gave rise to the agricultural
revolution – the ancient Egyptian civilization rose up around the Nile River,
after all. And the access to water made them the preeminent civilization on
earth for about 30 centuries.
Their pre-eminence lasted until the next revolution in the
utilization of water – the Roman Aqueduct. The ancient Roman Aqueducts are
considered by many to be perhaps the eighth wonder of the ancient world. Indoor
plumbing, a sewer system and running water elevated the Roman civilization far
above its peers, with its systems centuries ahead of its time. This contributed
to the urbanization of humanity, and only in the past few centuries have modern
plumbing moved beyond the Roman design.
Water eventually also became vital for maintaining empires
and shipping. Today, the primary lingua franca of the world is English,
ironically. This is principally due to the victory of Admiral Lord Horatio
Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the Royal Navy achieved a
decisive victory over the French and Spanish Armada’s during the Napoleonic
Wars, preventing Napoleon from invading the UK, and establishing the Royal
Navy’s hegemony over the seas for about two centuries. This established the
greatest empire the world had ever seen – the British Empire. At its peak, over
20% of the world’s total land area and population was under British control.
Suffice it to say, water is the most critical resource not
only for life on this planet, but for civilization as well. Only with modern sewage and plumbing has
humanity managed to achieve dense urban populations and mass industrialization.
Only with modern water distribution systems and agricultural techniques have we
found a way to feed this burgeoning population, and reached new heights in our
population boom.
But this easy access to potable water has made us lose sight
of its true value. In our relentless pursuit of industrialization and
modernization we have slowly altered the climate of our planet, and we’re
starting to see the effects of ignoring water already. Windhoek itself is
slowly edging into a severe water crisis, with barely enough water to sustain
us until June next year, unless we have a bountiful rainy season. The drought
in California has resulted in quite severe measures having to be taken to
preserve life on the edge of the North American deserts, with social unrest
following its severe water restrictions. And this is just the tip of the
iceberg.
Currently, there are water crises in Ethiopia, Sudan,
Uganda, Afghanistan, China, India, Iran and Morocco. Without water, society
collapses. And as the refugee crisis in Europe shows, this is not only a crisis
for those specific countries, but also for their neighbours, who would be, if
you’ll pardon the pun, flooded with refugees in such cases.
In many ways, Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel Dune was
ahead of its time. In describing a desert world, along with all its ecological
problems, Dune was the first major ecological science fiction novel written,
and perhaps, also prescient. Given the problems we face, not only as a nation,
but as a species, we should take care of this little blue dot we live on, lest
we too need to learn how to survive on a desert planet.
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