I just came back from Bali after attending one of those seminars where it's strictly business - just straight from the airport to the hotel and back. No sightseeing in between. However, when three of us were offloaded because the airline oversold its seats, I thought I may just do some last minute photography. But it was late and the hotel was far away from anything. So I settled in for a good long soak in a warm bubble bath instead.

I got into the tub with a cup of hot coffee and a newspaper, and just as I was ready for a good long soak, I suddenly felt guilty. I had filled up the whole bathtub of drinking water just for one person to soak in. My goodness, I hadn't learned any lessons from the seminar which was on the scarcity of water. So in my remorse, I unplugged the bathtub after a quick soak, which was even more wasteful, of course. But the moot point is the whole one and a half days of water seminar is just like water off a duck's back.

The irony is the situation is recalled by Prof Brahma Chellaney from the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, in his presentation at the Konrad-Adenaur Stiftung seminar on "The Strategic Importance of Water in Asia."

He cited from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by the 18th century English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, where the ship went off course and the sailors were dying of thirst in the midst of the mighty ocean:

Water, water, everywhere. Nor any drop to drink.

"Too much water but too little to drink," he pointed out.

"Take the case of Bangladesh whose very future is threatened by saltwater incursion and river flooding. Bangladesh is the seventh populous nation with a population of 150 million," he said.

Chellaney said some 1.8 billion people across the world already face acute water shortages even as millions of children continue to die every year from water-borne diseases and as much as one fifth of the global population does not have access to safe drinking water.

According to S.M.A.Rashid, the executive director NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation of Bangladesh, more than 97 per cent of the world's water is salt water. The remaining three per cent is freshwater, much of which is contained in the polar caps, glaciers, or soil moisture. Thus only one percent of the world's water supply is readily available for human consumption. Come to think of it, only one percent of all water supply is readily fit for human consumption and much of that goes into many uses other than for drinking. Like watering the lawn, washing cars, farming, manufacturing and energy production. And filling up bathtubs for bubble bath, of course.

Another presenter, Herbert Obenhansli from the economics and international relations of Nestle S.A. piled on more water statistics.

"If present trends continue the livelihoods of one third of the world's population will be affected by water scarcity by 2025," he cited from a report.

However, he said it is possible to avoid the crisis, provided there is more basic knowledge and awareness of both the problems and complexity of water trends and there is a need to start broad discussions about long term solutions and not piece-meal efforts.

Chellaney also mooted the probability of what he calls, "water wars." He said although a stable energy environment is critical to continued Asian prosperity, another major challenge is water shortages in Asia.

This could trigger conflicts within and between states, and open new or exacerbate existing political disputes, he warned.

"The quality and quantity of available water in Asia will be a critical component of the security-related challenges posed by climate change," he said.

Chellaney also raised an interesting point that both in Hindu as well as Greek mythology, gods and goddesses related to water are powerful characters tied to fertility or to new beginnings or destructions.

He added that in the contemporary world, cooperation or conflict over shared rivers has centred on factors such as water distribution, the quantity of water availability and the struggle between upstream and downstream provinces or countries over (river) sharing.

Interestingly, Oberhansli has also pointed to both the political and spiritual aspects of rivers and water. He said the River Jordon is of importance to the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaisim, Christianity and Islam.

However, quoting another report, he said, "The Jordon River will disappear if nothing is done soon. What keeps the river flowing today is sewage and runoff water from agriculture."

Apart from the fact that Jesus was baptised in the Jordon, the river is also unique in that it does not flow into the sea but onto a lake known as the "Dead Sea" which is 8.6 times saltier than the sea.

In the Biblical narrative in Genesis, there was once, "a river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters."

Of these four, two are the Tigris and Euphrates that water the Fertile Crescent and over which the human drama has acted itself out and over which the different civilisations had lived together and fought against with each other as well.

The Bible closes with the Book of Revelation with the promise of the River of Life at the end of history. "On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

We live under the shadow of water crises and wars looming over us. But if we begin to value each drop of water as God sent, and share our precious water with our neighbours peacefully, then we also live in the hope that such water wars and crises may just be averted. (By BOB TEOH/ MySinchew)