Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource. Rev. ed.

Dr. Patrick W. Colgan is the director of Research and Natural Lands at
the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Marq de Villiers has wide experience as an author and editor. In Water,
an update of a book that won a Governor General’s Award in 1999, he
cites a litany of problems to illustrate the gravity of waters in peril,
while noting that some 300 major rivers cross borders. He then reviews
retreating glaciers, the core of the hydrologic cycle. The myths and
ancient history of water systems are interestingly discussed, especially
the qanat (dug wells and tunnels) systems of Persia. De Villiers next
presents an analysis of links among climate, water, and weather,
especially in terms of ice sheets and deserts. The grubby side of water
issues is examined in terms of pollution, poverty, water-borne diseases
(such as cholera and bilharzia), and regional issues such as arsenic
poisoning in Bangladesh. Unsurprisingly, the Aral Sea is taken as an
example of gross overexploitation (mothers in the region are discouraged
from breast-feeding infants). The author then examines the issue of
major dams, long supported by the World Bank, with particular attention
to the Aswan High Dam, a dam in Lesotho, and, of course, Three Gorges in
China. He outlines the problems associated with irrigation in terms of
salination and poisonous effects. The “groundwater over-draught” of
aquifers is considered with examples from Libya and the Ogallala Aquifer
of the Great Plains.

A series of chapters discuss particular regions. In the Mideast, Israel
controls the neighbourhood aquifers. The Tigris-Euphrates system is
subject to Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and the Kurds. The Nile is increasingly
insufficient for Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Sudan. In dry southern Africa,
water is divided among Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. In his
analysis of North America, de Villiers laudably highlights the role of
the International Joint Commission. Predictably, there are significant
tensions between India and its neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan. The
problems facing China in terms of pollution, deforestation,
desertification, and red tides are huge. The final chapter surveys four
strategies of import, conserve, population control, and stealing(!)

The text bounces (occasionally disconcertingly) from the general to the
specific in terms of locations, problems, and personalities (with
mentions of Canadians such as Thomas Homer-Dixon, David Schindler, and
Maurice Strong). Inevitably, aquatic issues give way to economic,
political, and social issues. In terms of updating, one chapter has been
dropped, two have been added, and events as late as September 2002 are
covered. No one from the Bush administration is mentioned (have they all
been silent?), but Al Gore is appropriately quoted extensively. At
multiple points, the text cries out for a map or figure. And surely de
Villiers does not take water dowsing seriously.