Aitch two oh!

On water. You cannot walk on it - unless you are the Christ. When it's in a river you cannot step into the same bit twice. It's good for shaving in - and cooking in. It's great for making tea and coffee with. You can wash yourself and your clothes in it. It's essential to human life - all life in fact. Two thirds of the entire planet is covered in it.

Interesting thing is - there isn't enough of it. Well not the kind we humans need anyway. Last time I looked, the WHO thought that every person on the planet requires 20 liters of it every day. People in the western pretty much take it for granted. People in a majority of countries in the world die from lack of it. People in the west wash their cars in water that people in the developing world would love to be able to drink - and shit in it, and flush the whole mess away with more of it. The average person in the United States uses 200 litres of it every day - drinking quality water.

Wash the dog, flush the bog, water the plants, clean the car, scrub harmless graffiti from the walls, rinse the mud from the cricket balls - it's only water! When the local council forbids you from using it to water your beautiful green lawn - you watch it turn brown and your face forms a frown. Forget that there are people dying all over that world that you do not visit for that last little drop that you used on your own little crop - of tomatoes.

Picture this - four adults are sitting around a table eating a light lunch and discussing the dreadful waste of water in the world. This is in a village that regularly suffers water shortages in the summer. There is a swimming pool outside. When lunch is over the dishes are loaded into a dishwasher. The woman next door is hanging out a small line of washing - two machine loads worth - a dozen white underwear and two pairs of jeans. A woman in Africa cradles the head of her dead child and cries dry tears.

If there is a third world war it will not be fought over oil it will be fought over water.