Other

BBC World Service Online

The Compass v2 Podcast

The Compass

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

The Compass v2 Standard

With ideas too big for a single episode, The Compass presents mini-series about society

Surprising stories from unusual places. With ideas too big for a single episode, The Compass presents mini-series about the environment and politics, culture and society.

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Compass: Water: Too Much And Not Enough: Water as a resource

Factual

Water as a resource

31/03/2021 GMT

Water: Too Much And Not Enough

BBC World Service - The Compass, Water: Too Much And Not Enough, Water as a resource

Alok Jha uncovers the broken economics and politics of water

Alok Jha uncovers the broken economics and politics of water.

Journalist Alok Jha shows how the way we are using freshwater has made it a precious finite resource. And it’s a resource on the edge of collapse. By 2050, over half the world’s population will live in a water-scarce region. But rather than working together to manage crucial water supplies, powerful states are manoeuvring to control the remaining stocks for themselves.

Beginning with one family’s well drying up in the desert of Arizona, and following the story all the way to political tensions in the Middle East, Alok argues that we need to recognise water as the most important shared resource in the world and take advantage of its cross-border nature to encourage international cooperation.

(Photo: The Jordan river on mountainside. Credit: Getty Images)

The Compass: Water: Too Much And Not Enough

Alok Jha argues that we must urgently transform our relationship with water.

Journalist Alok Jha argues that if humans are to survive and thrive for the rest of the 21st century we must urgently transform our relationship with water.

We are in a global water crisis. Water is crucial to every aspect of the global economy, but we are rapidly depleting this precious resource. Water is our most basic human need, but over half the world’s population will live in a water-scarce region by 2050. We feel the effects of the most serious ecological crises mainly through floods, storms and droughts (too much water and not enough), but we are not acting with urgency to change course.
There is no global political consensus or clear strategy to address these threats. All too often, water becomes a source of geopolitical tension or conflict, rather than an opportunity for cooperation. At the highest levels of policymaking, water is routinely sidelined.

Science journalist Alok Jha, author of The Water Book, passionately believes that if we are to survive and thrive for the rest of this century, we must immediately recognise the global water crisis and transform our relationship with water.
Water: Too Much and Not Enough explores this ever-changing relationship with the element that covers 71% of our planet, from its role in shaping major religions through to futuristic water-based technologies. It encompasses compelling personal stories, vivid location recordings, fascinating history, surprising science, terrifying ecological crises, and the role water itself can play in solving some of humanity’s most serious problems. 

Episode One: How Water Shaped Us
Journalist Alok Jha argues that if humans are to survive and thrive for the rest of the 21st century we must urgently transform our relationship with water.

If we are going to change our relationship with water, then we first need to understand how that relationship evolved. So in this first programme of the series, Alok looks at cultural history to understand how water shaped our deepest psychology.
Alok finds that our relationship with water – always struggling for a balance between too much and not enough – fundamentally influenced the religious and spiritual worldviews of early civilisations. And we still feel the effects of this in our attitudes towards water today.

Alok uncovers a dark and compelling story of child sacrifice in 15th-century Peru, hears how the water landscapes of Mesopotamia and Scandinavia shaped very different religious beliefs, and learns that many Islamic teachings about water have been echoed by modern science hundreds of years later.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Compass

Water: Too Much And Not Enough

Water as a resource

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service