Mohammed Abdulaziz AI-Sahlawi

To the people of the world,

Why do we need water?

It is a ridiculous question when it comes to the importance of water to human beings. Next to air, water is most essential to human life, even more so than food. Around 75% of our body weight is water and 90% of our blood is water. It is ironic that water covers almost three-fourths of earth surface, less than 1 % of this water is usable, the rest is salty seawater and frozen in polar ice caps.

This explains why water is precious; why it is a holy substance, and why it deserves from us conservation and protection from pollution.

In arid areas, where surface water sources are limited, ground water becomes an important natural resource. Due to the economic cost of extracting the depletable ground water, some countries such as Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries moved to seawater desalination.

Photo by Femando Rodregues

Most recently, many efficient sea water distillation facilities and new technologies were developed and adopt-ed, which is why the Middle East in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, are at the top of the list of the countries producing desalinated water.

Water resources play a central role in formulating socioeconomic de-velopment policies of nations and the globe at large. Planners and decision makers are requested to put all efforts to maintain efficiency and productivity of production and use of water, given the challenge that water as a natural resource that seems endlessly renewable on earth’s surface but only negligible amount is consumable by our explosive global population..

Last but not least, no matter how much water can be supplied, the bottom line is how to manage the demand for it.

To people of the world, if you save water, you save your blood.