One can first of all simply wonder at the fact that it is only recently that
humanity has begun to ponder the evolution and fate of water in the world
when the very survival of our species depends upon it. How can one
explain that it has been taken for granted for so long, at least by the major
decision-makers, while one and a half billion people still do not have
access to drinking water?
‘Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.’
In his ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, Coleridge beautifully sums up the
