Every year during the period between October and December, we hear the same old story from the Managers , Distributors and Controllers of our fresh water resources. They ring the alarm bell, with rising decibels depending on the state of our surface and underground water resources. As matter gets worse, the authorities come forward with strict punishable laws against all those who ? gaspille de l?eau? unnecessarily. This stressful state of affairs cannot go on year after year. If it does, then those responsible for the research and management of our fresh water resources should be drowned in the pool of inefficiency. Let us be frank and fair. Billboards, restrictions laws and alarm bells are not the remedy. What we need is better and efficient management of our water resources.

Fresh water is the most important resource on planet earth. In the very near future, wars will be fought around the issue of water as it will become a scarce commodity. Therefore, our motto should be ?let not a single drop of rain, our only source of water, that falls on our highly permeable young basaltic rocks and soils?.reach the sea before it is used several times?.

We have a good knowledge of rainfall distribution in Mauritius.The Meteorological services have divided the island into nine zones and sub zones and annual rainfall distribution in each zone is scientifically monitored. From a hydrological perspective, our island is divided into some twenty-five river catchment areas and seven ground water basins. We all know that the period December ? March is our water harvest months with February being the wettest. Paradoxically, we often hear the alarm bells of floods during that period making Mauritius one of the most vulnerable Small Island Developing States. During the wettest months, our forty-one major rivers act as conveyor belts carrying hundreds of thousand cubic meters of our most precious resource into the lagoon. This reminds me of the following saying from Malcolm de Chazal ?et la pluie glisse dans le sous-sol caverneux de notre île et s?en va par des ruisseaux souterrains et en surface à la mer. La mer prend peu à peu la richesse de la terre et la richesse du ciel?Nous laissons toute notre fortune aller à la mer. C?est bête? Agissons.?

In terms of water demand and management, Mauritius is full of paradoxes. Virendra Proag, in his excellent book ?Geology and water resources of Mauritius? presents a few of them. One of the paradoxes is that water demands for domestic purposes and requirements for agricultural and other purposes increase during the period when water availability is low i.e during the period September to December. This is the period when drastic limitations are imposed upon the population. In order to redress the situation, apart from the repeated plan from the CWA for checking water wastage through leakage, there is a need to:

Retain more surface water by constructing more impounding reservoirs for water harvesting across the island during the rainy season. These will hold enough water for multipurpose use during the low rainfall period.

Go ahead with the construction of a large reservoir in the La Flora ? Souillac ? L?Escalier triangle. Since 1991, three sites have been identified and so far we have heard nothing in terms of feasibility study, construction cost and gains.

Check over utilization of available water resources during periods of water surplus i.e during the humid season at the beginning of the year. This is a precondition for water scarcity management later on during the year.

Adapt water requirements to water availabilities.

Increase trans-river basin exchange of water by constructing more diversion canals. This will help export water from surplus to deficit areas.

Check the wastage of water during the irrigation campaign of the sugarcane fields in the Northern Plains as over the years, some 10 % to 15% of the water is irrigating roads rather than fields due the high density of punctures along the whole length of the irrigation pipes. This is a classic example of water resources mismanagement.

All the above require a well balanced water resources development, harnessing and conservation strategy for optimal continuous use through the setting up of a Water Management Information System (WMIS). This decision-support tool is essential for an effective water demand and provision strategy which will allow us to analyse the requirements and availability on a regional and national basis especially with the development of new IRS projects and proliferation of golf courses. We must not, by any means, allow such mega projects as the Tianli Multipurpose Project, by their excessive water requirement potential, cause further drastic water shortages to the northern villages. Are we prepared to satisfy the water requirements of such projects?

Water is an economic good, a valuable natural capital for us. It is a finite and vulnerable resource essential for life, for development and for the environment. So let us inject the required capital in the forthcoming national budget to allow the Water Resources Unit and the Central Water Authority to effectively explore, retain and distribute our water resources in a rational and sustainable manner for the proper economic development of Mauritius. If they go on doing business as usual, then the paradox as exemplified by the places named Riche-en-Eau and Rivière-Sèche will continue to prevail.