<B>Par Nicholas RAINER</B>

Last week, ?l?express? reported that the Central Water Authority would soon start rationing water supplies because the country?s reservoirs are emptying too quickly. This might come as a surprise to those who remember the torrential rains that pounded the island earlier this year. It?s an undeniable fact, however, that water scarcity is already rearing its ugly head. Nowadays, whenever some climatic problem arises, global warming instantly comes under fire. It does indeed make for a very convenient scapegoat. It?s like some sort of faceless evil stalking the Earth. There?s a more localized explanation for the dearth of H2O: deforestation.

In his excellent book, ?Green imperialism: colonial expansion, tropical island Edens and the origins of environmentalism 1600-1860?, Richard Grove dedicates a whole chapter to Mauritius. Entitled ?Protecting the climate of paradise: Pierre Poivre and the conservation of Mauritius under the ancient régime?, it focuses on the role of the creator of the Botanical Gardens of Pamplemousses in elaborating early forest conservation policies. The author recounts how the horticulturalist denounced the intensive felling of the island?s forests and warned of the implications this would have on the climate in the future.

?But the greatest fault that has been committed in this island?, he went on and that which most prejudiced the success of agriculture is ?their having reclaimed the forests by fire without leaving any woods at intervals between the clearings?. This would have direct climatic results, he believed, since ?the rains which in this island are the sole amendment and the best that the earth can receive? follow these forests exactly, but cease and do not fall on cleared land; also these lands have no shelter against the violence of the winds which often destroy all crops?.

Pierre Poivre?s observations now seem eerily prescient. In 2006, the Forestry Service published the National Forestry Policy (NFP) in which it identifies a preoccupying trend. ?Although Mauritius receives abundant rainfall occasionally, there are indications that the trend of the annual rainfall is decreasing over the years.? In itself, this sentence is worrying enough. Add ?economic development, population growth, higher standards of living, low water charges and pollution? into the mix, and it becomes positively scary.

One way the authorities hope to cope with water scarcity in the future is by building a dam at Bagatelle. The NFP warns however that ?dam construction, which is destructive of biodiversity, should be the last resort?. Naturally, the fate of our biodiversity might seem like a frivolous consideration when the country?s water security is at stake. Yet it?s exactly this sort of disdain that has put Mauritius in a situation of water stress. Even if Pierre Poivre and a handful of other enlightened souls showed remarkable astuteness in identifying the correlation between forests and rainfall, the great majority of early settlers knew little about the impact their actions would have on the island?s climate. That excuse is now redundant. To continue to neglect this problem would be a sign of national insanity.