An adequate supply of water is a fundamental need of any society. Everyone requires water to drink; but also for cleaning, washing and cooking and, if a society is to flourish and expand, water is also needed for irrigation and industry. A supply of water is also desirable for recreational uses, such as filling up swimming pools and watering gardens. Consider the following statistics: you need at least 3 litres of water to produce a can of vegetables, 100 litres to produce one kilogram of pears, 4,500 litres to produce one tonne of cement, 4.3 tonnes of water to manufacture one of steel, 50 tonnes to manufacture one tonne of leather and no less than 2,700 tonnes to make a tonne of worsted suiting.

Even more importantly, the average human being -of which there are now more than 5 billion on the planet- needs to drink a litre or so of water each day in order to stay alive. That is, if he or she is adequately fed. The water requirements of those who are on starvation diets are dramatically higher, because solid food, of which they are deprived, itself consists mainly of water.

Water as the one essential requirement of all forms of food production, is the key global resource. No water, no food. Water is thus a limiting factor in human development and water shortages are heavily implicated in humanity’s present bad condition.

It will be useful to reflect on the relevant Qur’anic verses concerning this subject. Allah who created everything in the universe and beyond reminds us that water is the source of organic vigour:

‘Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before we clove them asunder and of water fashioned every living thing? Will they not then believe?’ (Qur’an, 21:30)

The phenomenon of life has to be known before this verse can be understood. We know that the basic unit of life is the molecule known as DNA. If the vitality of an organism consisted in this molecule alone and if this molecule had developed from the molecules of water, the verse would have read: ‘We created all living things from water.’ Vitality on the other hand, is the construction of a new and identical molecule using organic chemicals from the original.

There is a subtle difference between life and vitality. Life is a structural characteristic, while vitality is a function of that characteristic. Let us now return to the verse. The word occurring in the verse is ‘the living’, which corresponds to vitality. The meaning of the verse can be understood to be this: ‘We have brought forth all living things from water’. Allah is the best of knowers. Vitality has arisen from, and has gained power from, water. The verse does not say ‘created’ (khalaqna); but ‘empowered’ (waja’al-na). After this the verse ends with the question ‘will they not then believe’ – directed rhetorically at unbelievers, meaning ‘how can they not believe’. The question is especially relevant to the unbelievers of our time, for it is only thirty years since the indispensability of water to vitality has been recognized scientifically.

The relationship between water and vitality is a profound one. In general terms, energy is needed for the continuation of vitality. This energy is obtained by the exchange of ions. A cell is healthy if the water ions within and surrounding it are balanced; otherwise it is diseased or dead.

Water is therefore the basic element not of genesis and life, but of vitality. The verse expresses this subtlety so beautifully that it is impossible not to affirm the Qur’an as a Divine miracle. And that miracle is reemphasized by the question: ‘How can they still not believe?’  

More than 97 per cent of this water is in the oceans. The rest-about 37 million cubic kilometres-is fresh water but most of that is of little use since it is locked in icecaps and glaciers. Current estimates are that about 8 million cubic kilometres are stored in relatively inaccessible ground water and about 0.126 million cubic kilometres are contained in lakes and streams.

Like coal, oil, iron or soil, water is a natural resource. But there are many ways in which water differs from other natural resources. First, it moves. Second, its total quantity on the earth is fixed and can be neither increased nor decreased. Thirdly, water is essential for human survival.

The human being’s biological need for water is modest. A dozen or so cupfuls a day are all that are required for survival. Even so, there are many areas of the earth where even this requirement is difficult to meet. Rainfall in many desert regions is limited to a few millimetres a year, and this often falls at unpredictable times during the space of a few isolated days. Survival in these regions is impossible unless water is imported.

Biological survival, however, is not the issue in today’s water-stressed world. Water is required for household needs, for industry and agriculture. Household needs-drinking, washing and cooking-could be adequately met everywhere in the world by less than 100 litres per person per day, roughly the amount used for an average shower. Of this, only one litre a day is required for drinking. A hundred litres a day is the equivalent of about 35 cubic metres per person a year. If every man, woman and child on the planet were provided with 100 litres of domestic water a day, the water bill for a population of 5 billion people would be 180,000 billion litres a year; or 180 cubic kilometres. In theory, the Amazon river alone with an annual flow of nearly 6000 cubic kilometres could supply the domestic water needs of a world population more than 30 times as large as it is now.

A supply of unpolluted drinking water and the sanitary disposal of human wastes are fundamental to health. Water pollution moves through shared rivers, lakes and seas. An estimated 60 million people died of diarrhoea diseases due to unsafe drinking water and malnutrition, most of the victims were children.

Irrigation is by far the biggest use of water and also the most rapidly expanding. Plants use large quantities of water during their growth. Under dry conditions, it takes about 1000 cubic metres of water to produce one tonne of plant growth. The amount of water used for irrigation has increased 10 times this century and elaborate plans are still being made to extend irrigation to more and more areas. The basic addition is simple: 565 cubic kilometres for domestic, industrial, cooling and livestock use, plus 3,300 cubic kilometres for irrigation. As near as makes little difference, the answer is 4000 cubic kilometres a year, equivalent to 44 per cent of the total reliable run off.

In 1940, total water use was about 1000 cubic kilometres a year. It had doubled by 1960 and doubled again by 1990. The rising need for water has two components: One is that more and more people use water and the other is that they use more of it than they used to.

The Qur’an reminds us that water is the source of all life. “Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We made every living thing out of the water? Will they not then believe?” (21:30).

The phrase can equally mean that every living thing is made of water (as its essential component) or that every living thing originated in water. The meanings are strictly in accordance with scientific data. Life is indeed of aquatic origin and water is the major component of all living cells. Without water, life is not possible. When the possibility of life on another planet is discussed, the first question is always: Does it contain a sufficient quantity of water to support life?

References

• Robin Clarke (1991), Water: The International Crisis. Earthscan Ltd., London, UK.
• Maurice Bucaille (1983), The Bible, The Qur’an and Science, Seghers, Paris, France.
• The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
• Ahrned Zidan Ann Dina Zidan (1989), Translation of The Glorious Qur’an, Biddies Ltd., Guildford, UK.