Letter to My Minister

Abstract

"But, what if tomorrow a flood strikes a part of your country and people complain that there was not enough protection and the relief operations came too late and with insufficient equipment? What if people suffering from lack of water and inadequate sanitation begin to voice their rancour? What if peasants do not have enough water to raise a good crop? What if people are fed up of seeing their rivers transformed into sewers? What if industry cannot create enough jobs in the populated areas because there is not enough water to allocate? These are neither hypothetical nor technical questions, they all concern people, and they become more and more compelling as time goes by and as the level of living increases. They all stem from the fact that every human activity needs water, and uses and pollutes more and more of it every day."