We live in an age of Relativism - in beauty, politics, truth, values. In arid countries, with more many thirsty people, we face an absolute limit of water. That limit is not subject to change. We may disagree about the quality or use of our water, but we can agree on the fact that no one's making more of it. Compounding that shortage, one in five people world-wide still lacks access to safe drinking water.
Farmers compete for water with booming but stressed cities.
Towns drain aquifers that took centuries to fill. Saltwater pollutes groundwater miles from the sea. In a few decades, one in three may struggle to drink or bathe. Rivers seldom run, but loiter in a chain of reservoirs. As one who authorised the next stage of one of the largest dams in the Southern Hemisphere I can argue that nations build large dams for sound reasons.