Ashraf Ghaly, Union College
Blank Line
Fresh water is a necessity for life. Humans, animals, birds, and almost all living creatures cannot live without water. Water has many paradoxical features. It is one of the cheapest materials yet it is the most precious commodity known to humanity. Water could be the source of peace and development yet it could be a reason for war and conflict. Water could be a force for good to generate hydropower yet unchecked or unregulated this force could be in the form of destructive floods. Water could be a weapon to combat desertification yet too much thereof could cause erosion. Floods come with loads of mud and silt that charge river deltas and keep them fertile yet weaker floods result in lesser deposits that could threaten river deltas with sea attacks. Fresh water is the basic building block for life yet contaminated water is a major life-threat in the form of water-borne disease. Water has always been a main reason for people to settle the land yet a shortage thereof could force people to migrate and leave their homeland. Water is a resource that is taken for granted. Little or no thought goes into how precious this liquid is, and how essential it is to any form of life. It is such an absurd paradox that such a vital material is used so carelessly. With such an array of contradicting features, water makes for a rich, interdisciplinary topic to study. In absence of proper management, disasters in the form of starvation, disease, and war are bound to happen. A course has been developed where its focus was to open eyes and minds to water-related facts that can no longer be ignored. This course aimed at helping the students appreciate the dimensions of extremely important environmental, social, and economical issues.