The water supplies and water requirements of the modern state.

This is a vast subject and I cannot hope to do more than touch the fringes of it in the short space allotted to me. Clearly, water is the most important and widely used raw material of all. It is vital in every sense of that word. I t is a primary requirement of vegetable life and of animal life (and here I include human life). I need not stress its many domestic uses. Water is essential in providing electrical power in homes and factories, whether that power be generated by means of coal, oil, atoms, or by water itself in hydroelectric installations. It is required in the majority of industrial processes, including the manufacture of foods. It also provides a convenient means for removing the waste products of industry, and does the same for the drainage from our homes and our bodies. There is another requirement, certainly of the individual, even though it may not be regarded as a requirement of the State. I here refer to the psychological effect of water, by which I mean its effect on the mind and spirit. Most people seem to be greatly attracted to streams and rivers. In the stress of civilization these are places of refuge where peace and quietude can be enjoyed, and the less streams and rivers are spoiled by mankind’s activities the more satisfying they are usually found to be. Neither should fish be forgotten, which ought to be able to live there. Too often one hears it said that fish-life is of little or no consequence in comparison with the convenience of industry. Here it is obviously overlooked that where fish cannot survive as a consequence of pollution, the water may be useless for other purposes as well. Thus, water requirements are many and various, and the harmonizing of these with the availability of water is quite one of the most important of the tasks which confront those who are responsible for directing the affairs of the modern state. This task is by no means a straightforward one, for there are many factors to be taken into account.