<B>By Raj JUGERNAUTH</B>

Integrated Resort Schemes (IRS) promoters are now afraid that billionaires who are buying bungalows to the tune of tens of millions of dollars might end up mumbling some of the verses of Samuel Coleridge in front of the blue and green lagoon of Mauritius. ?Water, water everywhere, not a single drop to drink? (rendered today as ?but not a single drop to drink?). No water to drink or irrigate hotels lawns and golf courses.

Desalination is more and more envisaged by some hotels, which already pay between half a million to more than one million rupees per month to the CWA for its water. They have the means to pay. In other words, the rich tourists and billionaires of the IRS estates will have the means to pay, even for the high costs of desalination.

But what about the villages and new housing estates, which have sprung up on the coast. Will the poor villagers and rich bungalow dwellers around hotels and IRS sit back, watching the hotel lawns being watered day and night when they do not even have a single drop of water in their tap.

Water scarcity gave rise recently to riots in Palma. Severe cuts were necessary because of drought. But, in the future, these severe cuts might become a daily feature, even during the rainy season. IRS, high tourist arrivals, industrial development based on the Tianli project, imported labour coupled with climatic changes and less rain might spell havoc.

Mauritius has already been classified by the UNDP as a water-stressed country, which means that Mauritius is supplying less that 1,700 cubic metres of water per capita. In fact, the supply is a little more than 1,000 cubic metres per capita and we might fall in the category of water scarce country if ever we fall below 1,000 cubic metres per capita.

The UNDP index is hotly debated at the ministry of Public Utilities where it is believed that the UNDP got it all wrong and that we are not a water-stressed country.

But the facts speak a different language. Investors thinking of desalination, on the one hand. On the other hand, the stark reality that no Mauritian gets a 24-hour water supply. Each and every one has to be equipped with water tanks ? big ones in fibre glass, which cyclonic winds blow down onto our neighbour?s yard or on the street and which we have to replace at great cost. Those who cannot afford buy plastic drums not suitable for storing drinking water and feed their family and babies with cancer-inhibiting water.

All this because the ministry of Public Utilities, under this government and ex-governments, has been very bad at forecasting water demand in the context of our development.

Building dams is not a simple thing and it cost lots of money. The Midlands Dam was built to the tune of Rs 1,6 billion. It is also a known fact that it takes between 10 to 15 years between the feasibility study of a dam and the end of construction works.

Bagatelle Dam, which will have half the storage capacity of Mare-aux-Vacoas have reached the stage of detailed study. Construction works might start in 2009 and the dam ready to alleviate water problems in Lower Plaines Wilhems and Port-Louis might be ready in 2013.

Preliminary studies are still on concerning plans for the south, the region of the island most water-stressed. Hope that weather conditions will spare the country of severe droughts and riots before these projects are completed by a competent government.