Years ago in Abu Dhabi, an old Bedouin woman told me her greatest joy was being able to turn on a tap after a lifetime drawing water from a desert well.

She is one of the lucky ones, but some 10 million people, mainly in developing nations, continue to live without access to safe water and proper sanitation.

Clean drinking water is a right, not a necessity, for every person on the planet and as the world population grows and aquifers shrink, future conflicts will be over water; not oil, as is the case today.

The rationale for water usage dates back to a vast dam built to store water for workers quarrying stone for the Pharaohs. In Southern Arabia, the Sabaeans constructed the historic Marib Dam. The Babylonians were skilled canal builders on the Tigris-Euphrates plain. Ancient falaj are still in use in Oman.

And if you consider the shaduf, water lifting device, was invented some 3000 years ago: is it not shameful that spacecraft are sent on Moon missions before Earth`s peoples have a proper water supply?

The situation is critical in poor countries in Africa and Asia, of whom many are dependent on tourism revenues, when tourism is the biggest water consumer of all.

The FAO estimates that in 55 days, 100 hotel guests use water equivalent to the needs of 100 urban families, over two years. I have seen rotary sprays watering emerald green golf courses in Malaysia, when the surrounding land was parched.

Travel writers can educate readers, but the onus is on travel agents to stress to tourists - particularly those visiting East African resorts currently suffering the most severe drought in decades - to consider water usage.

Shower with a partner (bathe in the sea) and don`t allow your sheets to be changed on a daily basis. You can turn on a tap in your room, but local villagers may not have access to the infrastructure supplying your hotel.

Action Water: www.actionwater.org.uk

24 September 2009