by Russell H. Smith

Created on: January 19, 2009   Last Updated: February 14, 2009

There is no nation, arguably no continent, which suffers the acute extremes of "Mother Nature" more than Australia. For as you read, just over 1,000 miles separates mass flooding to its north-east, and a deadly inferno to the south, which has claimed nearly 200 lives.

After all, Australia is not only the world's oldest, flattest continent, it is the second driest after Antarctica.

Today, by dint of its scarcity, the politics of water is transformed into a nefarious and dangerous global enterprise - which in some cases is life threatening.

So as the "international community" suffers a collective conscience-attack, about wise usage of dwindling water resources; the obvious sinks in - we cannot diversify away from freshwater.

Yet arguably, long-term sustainability - arresting freshwater depletion - requires international stewardship. And the remedy the "Rosetta stone"; paraphrasing a famous US presidential catch cry - it's education stupid.

But it also makes sense to heed the advice of sociologist and English philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action".

So with "action" in mind the UN General Assembly declared 2003 as the "International Year of Freshwater". Not surprisingly, the Parliament of man deduced; "Cooperative partnerships between all levels of government, engaging with individuals, corporations (NGOs), academia and Peak Bodies to plan, develop and manage water resources". (Factsheet - Salinity & Water)

Underlining just one of these challenges, author Roger Bate in, "All the Water in the World", claims entrenched practices must change; "And mismanagement, especially in agriculture, is largely the fault of centralized control by government officials. Water is often under-priced, leading to wastage and poor conservation." Bate has little compunction when affording blame; " Even on the rare occasions when government planners have priced water to near-efficient levels they have been incapable of tracking changing demand, leaving hundreds of millions of people without access to clean water." (Bate 23)

Now if governments' are grappling with "best practise" in water resource management, we need to be highly suspicious of attempts at the wholesale privatization of water. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in his role as President, of "Water Keeper Alliance", articulates the perils of such a proposition; "If we allow private companies to get control of the waterway and then start charging people for that...that is privatization

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