Although over two-thirds of our planet is water, we face an acute shortage. This scarcity flies in the face of our natural assumptions. The problem is that 97% is salt water. Great for fish, not so good for humans. Of the world’s fresh water, only 1% is available for drinking, with the remaining 2% trapped in glaciers and ice.
Put differently: if all the water on earth was represented by an 11-litre jug, the freshwater would fill a single cup, and we can only access the last drop. Increasingly, for water to be useful, it needs to be mined, processed, packaged and transported, just like gold, coal, gas or oil. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water.
There have been three waves of resource-driven imperialism in the modern era. A quest for gold fuelled the first wave.
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