Clean water is easy to take for granted until it’s no longer available. Peter sits down with Col. John Blashford-Snell, OBE, President of World Travel Market, to learn about his work with Just A Drop and their philanthropic efforts to make safe water available for all.
Peter Greenberg: To start with a little bit of history, in 1968, Halie Selassie of Ethiopia invited the British Army to send a team to make the first descent into the infamous Blue Nile. Guess who led it? Col. John Blashford-Snell of the Royal Engineers.
We’re not going to talk about the Blue Nile, but certainly going to talk about water. Let me ask you: Is there a relatable way for travelers to measure our consumption of water and what it really means to people who really have to struggle to get just that drop?
Col. John Blashford-Snell, OBE: I hate quoting statistics, but there are about 900 million people in the world who don’t have access to clean water. I find when I’m on an expedition that the greatest luxury in my life is to be able to turn on a tap and drink from it. You can’t do that in many countries. You can in England; you can in America.
PG: In many countries when you turn on the tap you get sick, so you have to be careful. We take too much for granted. As a traveler, we know when we get to a hotel that the water is fresh and drinkable. Even in first world countries, there are water shortages. What can we do as travelers?
JBS: When you travel to countries with a shortage, don’t waste water. And encourage people to conserve it. One of the biggest problems at the moment is that the water level in a lot of countries is dropping. In the Indian subcontinent, it’s now down to about nine feet. It used to be about twelve foot below the surface. Why don’t they have surface dams like they used to many years ago? Wherever I go in the world I always say to people, why don’t you build a dam?
PG: Speaking of dams, we just did the radio show from Las Vegas where of course there is the famous Hoover Dam. You fly over the Hoover Dam when you land in Las Vegas and you cannot ignore the scene. The water has dropped thirty to forty feet and then it’s desert. You have all these casinos and all these resorts in the desert that are consuming unbelievable amounts of water every day and you can’t replenish that.
JBS: Well that’s the problem. Fred Pearce’s marvelous book When The Rivers Run Dry tells you all the problems that come from rivers running dry. It’s largely because the water has been taken out of the head sources of these rivers. And all the people who live down in the Deltas haven’t got any.
PG: Water has been diverted.
JBS: Diverting a water source leads to war. If there’s going to be World War III, I reckon it will be over water.
Dirty Water Commercial – US Version 30 from Just A Drop
PG: That’s a pretty strong statement. I didn’t grow up thinking the next war would be fought over water. It assumed it would be fought over politics and way of life, but when you think about it without water there is no life.
Moving along, you are just back from an expedition in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia where you put in a well. What has been the impact of that one well?
Credit: Just a Drop
JBS: One well will feed about three thousand people who are nomads and they will congregate around it. When we’re finished, the well will be part of community center with a small clinic and a school. People will come together there, but the reason they come together is water. Without the well they’re drinking water from muddy, filthy pools that they share with animals. In many of the countries where I go, you’ll find people are drinking water from rivers that are polluted by mining. These rivers are full of stuff like mercury and cyanide so people who drink from them can and do die.
PG: Not to mention that by putting that well in, you’re stopping people from walking twenty to thirty miles just to get water.
JBS: Indeed, they were coming to the well on foot, on camels and on motorbikes, just to get to water. It’s such a precious commodity.
PG: You know when you say to people to get involved in terms of saving water you can also get involved by educating yourself on Just a Drop’s Web site. Can I get involved in some of your expeditions?
JBS: Indeed you can. Next year, I’m going to Ecuador and Bolivia. Ecuador is wonderful example of where we can help because oil companies have polluted vast areas of eastern Ecuador. The water is now polluted with oil. And that means to say that people can’t drink it. Just A Drop is going to put in some wells there.
We’re doing a similar thing in Bolivia next year, too. Beyond the pollution, there’s mining there. We’ve got four villages to put in wells there. It’s devastating when you see the conditions people are living in. They’re crying out for water. A boy came up to me and asked if I had any, and I had a water bottle full, poured it out into a mug and passed it around to these kids. The look on their faces was extraordinary–– clean water.
By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.
Related links on PeterGreenberg.com:
