Written by Gitte Paulsbo
As soon as the air gets warm enough, we flock to the sea and dive in. There is little that compares to the feeling of floating on the surface of the sea and feeling the wet element brush against your skin, or stopping by a mountain stream and taking a sip of ice-cold, crystal-clear fresh water. Water and people have a relationship where the latter are completely dependent on the former, but not vice versa. March 22 marks World Water Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to highlight the importance of water and the challenges that exist around the world's water supply.
The challenges stand in line: 2.2 billion people are currently without access to clean drinking water. Every year, 502,000 people die as a result of unclean drinking water, and the combination of climate change and population growth means that the world's water supply is inadequate. The UN's Sustainable Development Goal number six commits all the world's countries to ensure clean drinking water for the entire global population by 2030. Is it possible?
Today, water is an essential part of all life on earth. The ocean controls the weather and regulates the temperature of our planet. Ocean currents transport water between the poles and the equator, cooling the warmer parts of the planet, while the warm water that comes from the south and up along our own coast provides those of us living in the northern hemisphere with a comfortable and livable climate. The ocean also forms rain and storms, which are transported over long distances and keep our crops and land moist and lush. Groundwater and surface sources of fresh water provide us with drinking water and help us maintain good health.
Even our economy needs water. Both the food we eat and the clothes we wear depend on large amounts of water to be produced. Today, fishing and seafood provide a livelihood for three billion people, and together all the renewable ocean industries (such as fishing and tourism) make up the world's seventh largest economy. Globally, we earn NOK 2,500 billion a year from the ocean industry.
Water is essential to life. But what does water really mean to people?
In religion, water is central as a sacred and purifying element. According to the Babylonian creation epic, in the beginning, before both the earth and the sky had been named, there were two gods: Apsu, representing fresh water, and Tiamat, representing the salty sea.
According to Christianity, diving into or being sprinkled with water will drive away the devil, and holy water has been used for centuries to protect people and cattle from disease and other evil. Muslims begin all five prayers by washing their hands, feet, mouth and face, and a washing tap is a fixture in all mosques. The Ganges River in India is sacred in Hinduism and all Hindus are encouraged to bathe in the Ganges at least once in their lives.
We humans are drawn to water, it calms us down. Just being near water is enough to make our hearts beat faster and our shoulders slump. Water as a form of therapy, so-called hydrotherapy, can be traced all the way back to antiquity. In Norway, we know that saunas have been used since the 11th century, and further down in Europe, the tradition of spas has existed since before 1700.
Half of the water on Earth is actually older than the sun. In 2014, astrophysicist Lauren Iseldore Cleeves discovered that water was present in the vast cloud of gas and dust that gave rise to our solar system. Her study reveals that large amounts of ice survived the impact that formed our sun, mixing into the matter that eventually became the planets of the solar system.
We know that water has existed on other planets, but so far Earth is the only place we have found water in all its three forms: Solid (snow and ice), liquid and as gas, or vapor. Life on Earth starts about three billion years ago, on a desolate blue planet. In the ocean, photosynthesizing bacteria in the form of blue-green algae begin to absorb carbon dioxide from the environment. Just like the plants and trees we see around us today, they excrete oxygen. The blue-green algae spend millions of years absorbing carbon dioxide and filling our atmosphere with breathable air, also known as the "Great Oxynegation Event". About 2.5 million years later, we see the first land plants, and primitive animals slowly begin to colonize the land surface.
So water has always been, and still is, an indispensable part of all life. We know that virtually every process that takes place on earth needs water to function. Without water, societies, ecosystems and public health collapse. But the water we have is not enough. So what do we do?
Scientists all over the world have put their heads together to do the math on the world's water supply. Although the Earth is 70 percent water, only 2.5 percent of this is freshwater. 0.3 percent of this fresh water is rivers and lakes, while 70 percent is ice. The remaining 30 percent is groundwater. Industry and agriculture consume large amounts of the world's groundwater supply, and when the bottom line is set, there is not much left for drinking water. So we're dependent on finding new water, but there isn't any more. So we need to use what we have in a smarter way.
An example to follow
By recycling wastewater, Durban in South Africa has given one million people in slums access to clean water without increasing water consumption. According to Professor Petter D. Jenssen at NMBU, water saving, together with small-scale local solutions, is the way to go to overcome the world's water problem. He leads the European collaborative project SiEUGreen, a project that aims to reduce the world's water consumption by 90 percent without compromising living standards. Wastewater recycling is also on the agenda here. NMBU is working to set up a system that recycles toilet waste and provides us with water, fertilizer and heat. The researchers use algae and minerals to purify the wastewater and are left with crystal clear fresh water without harmful microorganisms.
So there is hope. Imagine that the water that whips you in the face when it rains, that embraces you as you take your first swim of the year and that quenches your thirst can both be the source of all life and at the same time create so much trouble? To think that the snowflake falling on your nose this winter could be older than the earth itself? It's pretty crazy.
Do you want to get closer to the water and nature around you and within you? A dip after a sauna feels extra good, and getting into a hot sauna after a sauna is just as nice. Even though KOK is located in the middle of the city, nature feels close in the hot bubble.
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