Advantages of Using Your Brain...

In the past, people killed for diamonds, wars were fought for land and countries invaded each other for oil. Nowadays, a new resource is rapidly evolving to become the world’s most precious and valuable commodity: Water.

While most of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, only 2.5 per cent is suitable for consumption. Of this, 70 per cent is frozen in glaciers leaving almost 7 billion people with 0.75 per cent of the Earth’s water to survive on.

Water is scarce all over the world, but especially so on the African continent. In South Africa, which is a semi-arid country (meaning that it gets less than half of the world’s average rainfall), interruptions to water supply are not uncommon and I have frequently returned home from the gym only to find that my shower was dry.

Yesterday I got the following e-mail

I wasn’t overly surprised about this – we’ve had supply disruptions before and usually Treasury deals with them quite well: After the initial rush to the kitchens where everyone tries to get a last cup of coffee (we don’t use kettles, but a boiler), things calm down and life returns to normal. Big water containers are put up in the bathrooms so that people can continue to use the toilets and wash their hands and everyone generally tries to safe water as much as possible.

So to my utter astonishment, I found a guy running the tab on full to fill up a watering can when I walked into the kitchen. Despite notices on every sink in the entire building asking people to use water sparingly, it did not occur to the plant guy or his supervisor that watering the plants today might not be the best idea! Completely oblivious to what was going on around them (they cannot have missed the signs) and without thinking at all, they continued with their routine as usual…

I could not believe my eyes and called the supervisor to point out the sign, hoping that he might realise what I was trying to say. But after a long silence I found myself forced to make the, apparently not so obvious, point “Today might not be the best day to water plants!!!” The guy really had to think about that one, but after another long pause cautiously agreed that today might indeed not be the best day – maybe he should come back tomorrow…?!

Maybe if people started to use their brains rather than just carry them around, South Africa wouldn’t have problems with water or electricity shortages…