There can be no question that Barbados has a problem with its water supply. This problem may have been aggravated by the current drought, but that there is a problem cannot be denied.
Every member of the public must regard it as his or her duty to ensure that each one of us takes action at the individual level to help the national authorities tackle the problem at that level.
During the last week, a senior academic at the Cave Hill Campus, Dr Adrian Cashman told the Inception Meeting of the Sustainable Water Management under Climate Change in Small States of the Caribbean he believes that “water is an underappreciated asset in the region among the general public”.
While it is true that he was speaking of his belief, what he says makes a lot of sense and many Barbadians will agree with him that too many of our people treat water without the respect that water supply receives in some other countries where potable water is in even shorter supply.
Dr Cashman, who was delivering his remarks to an audience of professionals whose daily work causes them to consider water resource management, did not pull his punches. He hit the nail on the head by dealing first with the problem of the public’s general attitude.
“Among the general public, when they go to their homes, they open the tap, and water comes out, where is the problem? If we try to tell them that there will be problems in the future, well, the future is far away, even when we are talking one year. Our memories are short.”
He then spoke of the attitude among some technical people, and asked: “If technical persons are unable to recall the effects of the drought of 2010, then what is expected of the society?”
There is an old saying that “one never misses the water until the well runs dry” and we suspect that the present drought will cause Dr Cashman’s words to fall on ground that is ironically, temporarily fertile, but that his concerns will have lesser impact once the dry season disappears.
Yet, his concerns and those of his colleagues are real and matter greatly to our social and economic well-being, for we can hardly prosper unless we deal with this problem. We have boasted for many years of the high quality of our seemingly endless supply of water, but housing developments and an improved way of life, with waterborne hygiene facilities, and lawns that we saturate while we sleep, have put the supply and sometimes the quality of our water, under stress.
We urge that Dr Cashman’s warnings should be taken seriously and we hope that his appeal for public support in tackling the issues meets a ready response. Water supply is important and so is climate change, and the problems we face are not exclusive to us.
As he pointed out: “There are many others facing the same challenges – water scarcity, water unavailability, more pressure on the quality of water, and in may areas of the world, people are trying to think how governments, populations and agencies can be prepared for facing the conditions that the new climate changes are bringing to us.”
The message is clear. We need to conserve water and respect it as a precious and life sustaining commodity and asset. We still have time but climate change and a callous approach to tackling the issues invite serious problems; perhaps earlier than we think!
