Maya Khankhoje is a globe-trotter whose dream is to see Earth from space.

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. It took interplanetary distance to make humans appreciate the full beauty of our planet and the error of our ways: why did we call our planet Earth when we should have called it Water? Of course we could have also called it Fire, which rages at its centre, and Air, which surrounds it, but Earth it is.

Most of the Earth's surface is indeed covered with water. There are 1.36 billion cubic kilometres of water on our planet, 97.2% of which is stored in the oceans. The remainder is stored in glaciers (2.15%), groundwater (0.62%), streams, lakes, the atmosphere and soil moisture. And of course, all living creatures are water vessels, with a total liquid-carrying capacity of 60% to 90% of their puny or grandiose selves, depending on what is counted, how and by whom. If humans were to be rendered down, we would be reduced to 70% water, which is perhaps better than living out our lives as "ugly bags of mostly water" as any Star Trekkie is aware.

Life most probably started in water, a point the Bible missed by sending us back to where we came from as "dust unto dust". The Aztecs, however, recognized the importance of water as the origin of life by venerating Tlaloc, Lord of All Sources of Water and his consort Chalchihuitlcue, Lady Precious Green, Whirlpool of Creation. Water is a sine qua non for life because it is the only substance whose solid form is less dense that its liquid one, which has profound implications for aquatic life.

Mangrove in the Botanical Gardens of Grand Cayman, taken by Chris Lyle

It is speculated that about 18,000 to 20,000 years ago ice covered one third of the earth's surface, a proportion which has now shrunk to 12%, and with global warming, we can expect a faster shrinkage rate. Glaciers are the repositories of fossilized water which is reputed to be as pure as pure can get. Which is why news of glacier meltdown is not only a harbinger of floods but of water salinification and contamination. Today freshwater stocks are only 2.5 % of total water supplies, and only 70 metres deep. Brazil can thank the Amazon river for one fifth of all global freshwater resources and China and Canada come a close second, although China's population is thirty times that of Canada's. At the other end of the scale, Namibia is one of the driest spots on earth, but then they have diamonds, don't they! Well, at least De Beers has.

The Bible would have to be updated to read: "from the oceans unto the oceans". Evotranspiration is a self-perpetuating hydrological cycle which includes transpiration, sublimation and evaporation. Water from the oceans condenses into clouds, precipitates into rain, feeds aquifers, rivers, lakes and plants, and the cycle goes on, its output remaining constant. The global problem we face is not one of lack of water, but of unequal availability of fresh water when and where it is needed most.

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink".

Samuel Taylor Coleridge had already articulated the nature of our current water crisis in his Rime of the Ancient Mariner, making us realize that water has been a constant source of concern for humanity, and in fact, for all living creatures. What makes water so special? Why does the Talmud enjoin us not to sell water that comes from a public cistern? Why does the law of the desert dictate that we should give our enemy a drink of water before finishing him off as we best see fit? Why is it that Hindus offer water to pilgrims as an act of godliness? Adam Smith knew why when he lamented:

"Why is it that diamonds, which have very little practical use, command a higher price than water, which is indispensable to life?"

Smith believed in the power of the invisible hand, but there is an American millionaire who bets on the power of futures, which has prompted him to buy freshwater lakes as an inheritance for his grandchildren. Diamonds might be forever and they make wonderful drills but the water at the bottom of a bore-hole is priceless and not necessarily forever. Does priceless mean that you cannot quantify the monetary worth of water or does it mean that it falls outside the realm of economics? There are economists who argue that heavily priced water would discourage profligacy. And there are socially minded conservationists who advocate a two-tier system whereby people would have their basic water needs covered free of charge and the rest would be charged at a premium. Both viewpoints make sense. No pain, no gain.

Lilly pads, Botanical Gardens, Grand Cayman, taken by Chris Lyle

Then there is water and there is virtual water. No, virtual water is not a screen-saver that appears to suddenly flood your computer files right before your eyes. It is a concept devised by economists to determine how much water it takes to grow fruit and vegetables. It might so happen that by importing fresh produce, a government would be actually buying cheap water. On the other hand, another government might decide to provide water to industry, where the cost/benefit ratio is higher, to the detriment of traditional farming and the environment, whose benefits are not so flashy but certainly more enduring. Governments, of course, do not always favour enduring values nor are they known for making the best decisions. This is especially true if they receive "aid" from international financial institutions. Take the case of the mega dam projects, a specialty of the World Bank, as in we'll all be damned big time!

In school I learned a lesson I shall never forget. My teacher said that the greatest civilizations known to humanity were born in the flood plains of mighty rivers: the Nile, the Ganges, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Yangt'ze and the list goes on. Well, the instigators of mega dam projects seem to have forgotten this lesson, if they ever learned it, that is. We all deplore the environmental havoc wreaked by the Aswan Dam in Egypt. In the Tigris-Euphrates region now called southern Iraq, a war was actually fought 4,500 years ago over water between two Mesopotamian city-states. Had Iraq valued water over oil, its fate and that of the world today might have been different. The Middle Yangt'ze, which is home to the Three Gorges --a well-spring of creativity for Chinese painters and poets for three millennia-- will soon be dammed and damned be the villages, animals and natural habitat that will be submerged forever. In the Narmada Valley in Central India a similar struggle is taking place, pitching the tidal wave of grass-roots resistance against the flood-gates of a mighty bank.

"A frog does not drink the pond in which he lives".

However, humans do. Californias have sucked their aquifers dry to green their golf courses and fill their chlorine-saturated swimming pools for the dubious privilege of working on their skin cancers. The Soviets diverted the water from the Aral Sea to irrigate distant cotton plantations, thereby disrupting agriculture. Today the sea has shrunk to half its size and one third of its water. Poor and underdeveloped Ethiopia loses 86% of its water from the Blue Nile to irrigate Egypt. The Blue Danube that inspired Strauss and generations of Austrians to waltz is no longer blue and has become the bone of contention between Hungary and Slovakia, with two dams doing equal damage on either side of the border. Water from the West Bank provides 25% of Israeli water needs. The average use among Israelis is 447 cubic metres per year, whereas 25 percent of the population in the West bank doesn't even have running water. India and Bangladesh, recognizing the importance of the Ganges for the economies of both countries, have thankfully signed a 30-year water sharing agreement.

"Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States".

Mexicans not only lost their best lands to their powerful neighbour to the North, but are now having the water of their Colorado river "stolen" to feed the fountains in Las Vegas. Turkey is the upstream provider of water to Iraq and Syria, although that tap might soon be turned off. Canada is reluctant to sell its water as a "commodity" under the FTA to its powerful neighbour to the South. Paul Robeson sung the praises of that " Ole Man River" but the Mississippi today is polluting all the land it passes through, with its full share of industrial effluents from the North. All these facts beg the question: who does the water belong to and who is responsible for its care?

"Let not a simple drop of water that falls on the land go into the sea without serving the people."

Parakama-Bahu I, King of Sri Lanka (1153-1186) had the right answer, except that today he might have urged us to also serve the environment. Water belongs to nobody and therefore, to everybody, and hence everybody is responsible for its care.

And since the main problem is one of polluted water in some places and an excess or dearth of water in other places, our task is to protect, preserve and procure. Many imaginative schemes have been devised to move water from one place to another. Prince Mohammad Al-Faisal studied the possibility of towing Antarctic ice to Saudi Arabia, but the logistics melted down the project! An imaginative entrepreneur developed the prototype of a water-borne vessel in the shape of a ten-metre condom capable of lugging water over the seas at a very low cost. Someone else suggested carrying water in superannuated tankers --which have a deplorable tendency to break apart spilling their contents-- arguing that if water spilled, the oceans would not be polluted, but his project fell through because nobody fancied drinking oil-spiked water. The locals in Curacao are proud of their Amstel beer made with water desalinated by reverse osmosis.

So we see that solutions to the water crisis do not have to be high tech or costly. We could learn something from the Theodosians 500 years before our Common Era, who had developed a dew-harvesting system capable of condensing 14,000 gallons of water a day. Dew ponds were in common use in the Sussex Downs way before the House of Windsor came into existence. The late Quebec writer Yves Thériault understood that if we have been led astray, nature can show us the road back home, provided we are willing to follow.

"If you listen to water, learn its language, then water will bring you knowledge of all beings and living things".