WHY WATER? Because Our "Living" Body Is A Water Machine!

The human body is, as are bodies of all "living" species, essentially a machine with one unique feature - water is one of the necessary ingredients that make up our bodies and water is necessary for our bodies to work properly.
What's A Machine?

Source - tophdcars.com

Source - t-mobile.com

What comes to mind when we think of machines? Usually, a series of objects uniquely connected to each other that together accomplish a desired and useful task e.g. a machine we call "car" produces movement in a specified direction and the machine we call "cell phone" transmits our voice all over the globe and captures only those voices that we want to hear. The car and cell phone are just two examples of machines made by humans.

Resources for Artificial Machines

Source - telegraph.co.uk

Electricity Icon- Reddy Kilowatt
Source - creativepro.com

Artificial machines, like the car and cell phone, require at least three natural resources:

- water is necessary to make each and every artificial machine

- one natural resource (at a minimum) in its natural form or in an artificial form, makes up the physical body of every artificial machine

- at least one other resource, that we call "fuel", is necessary for the machine to operate: The car requires gasoline (petrol) while cell phones require electricity. 

All resources, except water, are typically used up (do not exist in their original form) after the artificial machine has completed the task it was designed to do.

Water is used up only in the sense that it still exists in its original form but is contaminated in some way and can only be used again after the contamination is removed.

The Human Body - A Natural "living" Machine

On average: 72% is water
Source - dorchesterhealth.org

Natural "Living" machines are exactly like artificial machines in three ways: 

- Both kinds of machines cannot exist in the absence of water: artificial machines require water in their manufacturing process, while the human embryo can only exist in an aqueous solution

- Both kinds of machines do not transform water, at its molecular level, while they use it
- Both kinds of machines do contaminate the water they use in some way to make used water unusable.

Natural "Living" machines differ from artificial machines in two ways:

- Water continues to be a necessary ingredient that makes up physical bodies of natural "living" machines, but is not a necessary ingredient of artificial machine bodies.

- Water is a necessary ingredient for both natural Living" machines to function and properly do all the tasks that it is designed to do. Water is not a necessary resource for artificial machines to operate.

Life as we know and define it, is not possible in the absence of water. This is the first and fundamental reason why safe water must be locally available in abundant quantity.

Freshwater's Supply Chain is Unlike that of Any Other Resource!

Freshwater is a resource like no other. While differences between freshwater and other renewable and non-renewable resources are many, freshwater's supply chain makes freshwater a most unique natural and renewable resource. Nature delivers freshwater in ways it doesn't do for any other resource. 
Freshwater's Current 3-Source Supply Chain

Source - willoughby.nsw.gov.au

3 sources of freshwater exist for most human settlements. These are:
1. Rainwater that naturally falls on the settlement
2. Freshwater transported from near and far locations  to the settlement, and
3. Locally obtained water, usually from a combination of sources located at ground level (e.g. rivers and lakes) and below ground (e.g. wells that tap the local water table).
Some locations do not, of course, have all 3 sources available to them -  but most do, because this 3-source approach was seen as the most prudent and dependable one.
Threat's to the 3-Source Supply
All three sources can be threatened today in a variety of ways for human settlements in different locations:
1. Climate change has impacted the frequency, amount and location of rainfall.
2. The ability to bring water from remote locations is threatened by both dwindling resources at the remote location and the assertion of communities along the transportation route to the freshwater being transported.
3. Continued extraction of groundwater has lowered water table levels, in some cases to depths that are difficult to access.
Rainfall - Resource delivery on a near-regular schedule

Source - diswaterdrams.com

Other than freshwater, nature delivers no other natural resource on a fairly regular schedule to locations where the resource may also be ingeniously available in bulk. 
Delivery of freshwater as rain was probably of little value while humans were migrating all over the globe. Rainfall's value only became evident about 10,000 years ago, when humans chose to settle down in one place (and grow the food they needed) instead of moving around in search of food. Humans, in a sense, became dependent on rainfall at the start of the agricultural age.
Rainfall Dependency
Once reliant on rain to grow their food, humans became subject to the impacts of any change in rainfall delivery frequency, amount or location. And it is, in large part, this dependency that is shaping a crisis in freshwater supply - supply of rain is simply too undependable.
The one unique feature that defines freshwater delivery is today the one unique force behind freshwater scarcity and water security.

Freshwater - A Singular Resource

Singular, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means "Being only one; individual, Deviating strongly from the norm." Yes, water, and in particular, freshwater is unlike any other resource.


Water is MORE than just another Commodity

Commodities
Source - tradecommodity.com.au

Water is a commodity in the sense that it is a material that can be bought and sold. 
Being basic to all life is what makes water a commodity with a difference.
Not only was water the medium for incubating life, water is also continuously required for sustaining and maintaining life.
We cannot, therefore, just think of buying and selling water - we must also factor in how humans, all other living species and nature's ecosystems are impacted by us moving water around.


Water is Distributed WORLDWIDE

Freshwater Distribution
Source - rusrev.org

Water is the most widely distributed substance on Earth. It is available everywhere. While the specific amount of water differs in different locations, there is no place on Earth with, literally, no water.
All other natural resources are also widely distributed, but each and everyone is not available everywhere even in the smallest of amounts. Some amount of freshwater is available everywhere on Earth.


Water has NO Substitute
There is no other substance, natural or synthetic, that can replace water. It is hoped that the world will migrate away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. No such transition is possible with water.


Water exists simultaneously in multiple forms: Vapor, liquid and solid

3 forms of water
Source - fcwa.org

No other resource exists in more than one form in the same location. Huge amounts of water are also bound into soil and other materials in every location.
Every other resource exists in a single form, usually as a liquid, in the same location.


We cannot MAKE new water

Periodic Table of Elements
Source - elementsdatabase.com

We humans cannot make any element of the periodic table or the basic compounds that combinations of these elements form in nature.

Water formation Equation
Source - scienceforums.net

Making water is a particularly tough proposition because of the amount of energy released. We simply have no way of containing this energy release.


We cannot DESTROY water
When we burn oil, no more oil remains, as the oil disintegrates into different chemical compounds.
Water, on the other hand, does not ever disintegrate into its components. Water gets polluted, changes color, acquires an odor or simply evaporates into the atmosphere or disappears into the ground.


Water is in Constant MOTION

Water Cycle
Source - kidzone.ws

Unlike every other natural resource, water is in constant motion. It is constantly moving between its three forms - from liquid to vapor, from vapor to liquid, from solid to liquid and every other possible transformation. Water is always moving in rivers and churning in lakes and oceans.
NO other natural resource exhibits this perpetual motion behavior. 


Water's Singularity
Water's perpetual motion, it's simultaneous existence in multiple forms, it's availability everywhere and its role as the basis for all life make it singularly unique.


We seem to want to treat water in ways similar to how we think and act with other resources. This may be our greatest error in dealing with water, and especially, finding ways to alleviate water scarcity everywhere on Earth.


We should, instead be looking at harnessing the unique characteristics of water to end water scarcity everywhere on Earth.