Climate Change Right From Our Homes

In the South, water is not always piped or guaranteed. The storage tank is the nearest to tapped-water to many. When the tank is exhausted, replenishments are after journeys to the nearest stream or borehole armed with containers. It is, therefore, easy to calculate the amount of water spent- or saved.

The disparities of the clean, albeit available water between the West and the South is an issue best not talked about. Nature has placed its strobe finger on spot and cannot be faulted.

But personal attitudes can be. For sensible saving water consumption is a personal decision that comes depending on one’s forward looking, feeling of concern for another however far removed, and undoubtedly, some sense of personal moral guilt.

Without blaming Sahara Desert for its pride, its commanding historic and geographic effects on the water balance in the sub-Saharan Africa can not be overstated. Yet, the disturbing fact is that despite the economic developments that have arisen over centuries, the would-be expected gains in harnessing the expansive wastelands have been negative. Desertification has progressively ravaged the previously sub-humid zones and water catchments leaving them barren, and thus with little ground cover that would be a step towards conserving the soil moisture. As a result, some previous watersheds are now cultivable lands while some latter are presently arid.

Although a long shot, saving water consumption in our houses is one of the initial steps towards conserving the environment before embarking on combating global climate change. The conscious first step I take in my bathroom can roll back events and put a check to the advancing desertification and the imminent global climate change.

Figuratively, all water in the world in one great continuum. The wasted amounts gashing away to drains eventually join the natural reservoirs that often recycle it clean as vapourised moisture that becomes the precipitations. Therefore, to many, there appears no loss. But the error is in failing to recognise how much is held unavailable in living tissues- especially by man’s explosive population growth and his trendy baby-feed bottles that have more than doubled the average intakes. Coupled with increased industrialisation and mechanisation with dual water demands for cooling the systems, the amounts help in reserves in case of emergencies, as well as the increased evaporative forces with raising temperatures, the amounts available are stressed to meet demands.

As the snowcapped mountains continue to loose their reserves, the streams will continue receiving much less, as will the distributaries and the rivers. With decreased water storage, the habitats will get drier and loose more vegetation, and then the relief will be less able to hold the rainfall. Thus, tropical desertification will be a lost war for mankind. Or rather, farmers will gradually loose their fertile lands to rangelands, the water table will gradually sink deeper, soil will gradually turn to sand and silt, there will be less ground cover, and then, there will be nothing but desert.

The temperate zones will soon be the next stop for the deserts. Already, Southern Europe is annually held siege by drought fires, while the previously green Britain has its taste of Summer droughts too. The calls for bans on water sprinklers have now turned to prosecutions. Talks like “who”s water, anyway?’ and “I always pay my water bills” no longer apply and calls have gone out for installing water meters. It is telling that “in South East, an average person used 155 litres per day in households with water meters, against 168 litres per day in those without meters in 2004/05 [BBC].” A conservative 20 million with such a consumption rate would almost siphon off the Thames dry. Add to that the amounts required in the industries and the picture becomes very bleak.

But as always, many prefer to leave everything to chance- let nature take its toil, wanting to believe that the rains will be more than adequate to replenish- better still rewarded with the floods- case closed.

Until the realities of global climate change hit home.