Speculative Fact #296: Water Water Everywhere…Not a Drop to Drink

In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the natives of the desert world Arrakis had to adapt to their harsh environment. They created inventions like “stillsuits” that recycled their body fluids and even reclaimed water from the blood of their dead.
            While drinkable water is available to all of us, it is a dwindling resource. Of all the water on Earth about two percent of it is fresh. Much of that fresh water is trapped in the polar ice caps, and of the remaining water two thirds is used worldwide in agriculture. While Earth’s fresh water has a cycle, the returns are diminishing. As the world population increases and we consume more water (not just for drinking or farming but also in industry) we have already tapped most of our deep aquifers (which take thousands of years to fill). There are some bordering states in the U.S. that have disputes over water rights and it is a cause of conflict overseas among nations where water is less abundant.
            Water scarcity is an excellent subject to explore or comment upon in speculative fiction and adapts very well into post-apocalyptic settings. The scarcity could lead to large scale conflicts and the rise of demagogues (such as in Mad Max: Fury Road) or perhaps clever engineers have found new ways to harvest it. Will monopolies sell it at exorbitant costs? Will it become a controlled resource? Will we finally begin to treasure and prize it for its ability to sustain life?

-Jonathan Hernandez

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