WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

utilities according to the principles of private enterprise. As far as our
water supplies are concerned, this development is particularly alarming
because there is no substitute for water, just as there is none for the
air we breathe. Experience has shown that, when water is traded just
like any other economic commodity, the quality deteriorates, prices
rise, all form of democratic control is lost and political decision-makers
become susceptible to blackmail.
In order to reinforce these statements, I will need to take a closer
look at various aspects relating to our use of fresh water.
3.1 Water in Abundance
More than 75 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. This
figure creates the impression that we will always have an adequate
supply of it and one which could never ever run dry. But appearances
are deceptive. Only around 2∙6 per cent of the world’s water reserves
are made up of fresh water sources and only just under 0∙6 per cent of
these are available to us. The remainder – approximately 2 per cent
– is locked away out of our reach in glaciers, the polar icecaps and
perpetual snow.
The fresh water at our disposal is extracted from rivers, lakes,
springs, wells and subterranean water deposits, so-called aquifers.
Our planet’s fresh water reserves are distributed in the following way:
glaciers and polar icecaps approximately 77 per cent, ground water to
a depth of 800 metres approximately 10 per cent, and ground water to
a depth of between 800 and 4,000 metres approximately 12 per cent.
Ground humidity, lakes, rivers, the atmosphere, vegetation, animal
and human life together account for less than one per cent.
The total amount of water on the planet remains constant and
it is always the same water we use to satisfy our needs. The tears
shed by a sad dinosaur many millions of years ago at the thought of
becoming extinct may possibly be found again today in some beach
café refreshment, and may even have been used in the meantime
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