Celebrating Water

Each year, World Water Day is celebrated on March 22, coming out of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Individual countries celebrate water in different ways. This year, the theme is “Clean Water for a Healthy World.”

For something so simple and formless and essential, water is remarkably complex, especially as it applies to society. We’re in the midst of a drought right now, something’s that’s forecast to linger for at least another few weeks. Never mind that this is a meteorological drought – as opposed to a hydrological drought – and that this is related to the El Nino phenomenon and is therefore expected and cyclical. Right now, we’re suffering from water shortages, which can lead to sanitation and public health issues. And when the rains start again, depending on the amount and intensity, there’s going to be a lot of turbid water coming into our collection systems. So clean water is critical, as are the facilities and mechanisms to clean the water.

We face several challenges as it relates to water resources management in Jamaica. There are issues of inequities in demand distribution, efficiencies, and capacities to effect solutions, both long- and short-term. One thing is for sure, however: we have SUPPLY. Over half of Jamaica’s land area is comprised of aquifer systems, and these have been relatively unaffected by the current drought. We know where the water is, and we know how much is there. The problem is getting it to those who need it, and protecting it from those who’d harm it.

The other issue is capacity building. We need to get a new generation of hydrologists, hydrogeologists and hydrological engineers to come on-stream. Right now, we’re shortchanging ourselves by not investing in this properly. So many young geologists are coming out of our universities with dreams of working in the oil industry (when we don’t even have a petroleum geology programme here), and not taking a look at their backyard in this land of wood and water. Then there’s the whole provision of equipment to support training and development programmes. And I’m not even going to go into preventing the next generation from uprooting themselves and migrating with all their new skills. It then becomes important to develop the sector as something meaningful and exciting, with adequate recompense, to make it worth their while in staying here.

So it seems that the single biggest challenge concerning water resources management is money. Now THAT’S complicated!