The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched The Drop Store, a (fake) online store thedropstore.org, to show how the water crisis can affect our daily lives.
The water crisis, like climate change, can seem distant or abstract to citizens. Hence the idea of the Dutch government to show the impact of the water crisis on their daily lives and consumption. in a specific way.
If nothing is done, water scarcity or excess can seriously alter access to basic products: - their form, - their availability, - their price, - their composition.
So the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked with PublicisGroupe to start with FMCG (soda, pizza, cheese...) and show in a fictional supermarket how it would affect them.
This gives: - $163 pizza-flavored tablets (loss of wheat and tomato crops); - 15 ml of "pure" water for $198 (water, which will thus become a luxury). Plain water that will turn brown and cloudy cost $ 2 for 590 ml ..
Overpriced mini portions of corn, cheese or salmon, insects as protein substitutes to illustrate the impact of drought and therefore lack of water on livestock.
It is effective enough to immediately see that there is water ... in everything we eat and consume. Hence the idea to replace the nutritional information on food labels with the number of liters of water needed to produce them.
...and at the bottom left put pictograms explaining the types of water-related events that can affect each product:
DROUGHT, FLOODING, POLLUTION
This is an effective campaign to illustrate that if nothing is done, water is in danger of becoming a luxury in the future.
So why could drinking water be so expensive in the future?
We cannot live without fresh water. Of all the water on Earth, only 2.5% is fresh water, most of which is trapped in ice or deep underground. But more and more water is being polluted with chemicals, industrial waste, as well as plastic, drugs and even hormones. All of this threatens our fresh water supply, requiring ever more sophisticated technology to make it safe to drink. Some 2.2 billion people worldwide no longer have safely managed drinking water services. Water treatment costs are rising everywhere, including in developed countries.
Contaminated water affects everyone who comes into contact with it, especially vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. Pollutants in our water can negatively affect crops, slowing their growth or making them unsafe to eat. Aquatic animals are particularly affected, as an imbalance in their ecosystem disrupts their food chain and can lead to the complete extinction of many species. Similarly, human exposure to contaminated water can cause many different health problems, including gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin diseases.
What can be done about it?
Conscious and influential companies in the water industry are working tirelessly to change the value of clean water to achieve the sustainable management of freshwater habitats. They also call on financial institutions to invest in sustainable water projects, create legislation to protect water, and force businesses to take more responsibility for the water they use and discard.
Raising awareness is one of the main conditions for successfully combating the water crisis.
Fortunately, there are many things that every person on the planet can do. Get involved with local organizations that are fighting the emerging water crisis in your area. Whether it's too much, too little, or too dirty, everyone needs it. There is a need to radically change the way we think about how to use, manage and value water. And this will provide an opportunity to quickly figure out how to restore and replenish the water cycle, even when we prosper. The good news is that there is all the scientific knowledge, most of the technology and the ability to return water to a sustainable course.