The underlying premise is simple: water is life. It is a necessity that flows through every part of our day, every day of our life. We depend on water for everything from basic survival to generating the energy that lights our homes and fuels our businesses. Therefore it is very important that we take water conservation seriously and start to innovate new ways to make what limited resources we have last.

In Water, Marq de Villiers tours the world to examine the state of its most vital resource. What he finds is not encouraging. From Africa to Asia and Australia, from Europe to the Middle East and the Americas, too many people depend on too little — and increasingly limited — water. Despite engineering schemes constructed to water deserts and to store and deliver water where it would otherwise not be available, demand for water will almost surely continue to outstrip supply unless we dramatically alter our behavior.

In addition to the problems of supply and demand, the book describes the ecological damage incurred by the use and abuse of water sources. Through pollution, diversion, and degradation, industrialization of the world has taken a heavy toll on water quality.

The author creates his narrative based of childhood memories. Growing up in an arid and rural South Africa, de Villiers is aggressive with the value of clean, uncompromised water. The book brings both ecological and historical knowledge alongside his frank criticism of how the world’s water resources has and continue to be managed. He states that, “Humans consume water, discard it, poison it, waste it, and restlessly change the hydrological cycles, indifferent to the consequences: too many people, too little water, water in the wrong places and in the wrong amount. The human population is burgeoning, but water demand is increasing twice as fast.”

Thanks to de Marq de Villiers’s humane tone and unique curiosity, Water ends on a positive note. There is much to be learned here and even though it takes a long time to change a mindset, with education and awareness we go from just talking about it