As a child I used to spend summers at my grandparents where water wasn’t exactly abundant. Somewhere below the farm there used to be a small well where they went to collect water with a tub tied to a long wooden pole. You needed to be strong to do it, so I wasn’t allowed to play around for fear of falling in. But the well was ever so mysterious and the villagers spoke of it with awe, saying that there lived some kind of Triton. I can still recall the color and taste of the water despite the scientific claims about it being colorless and odorless – the gentle mellow velvety emerald color as it was splashing from side to side of the bucket carried by my grandmother. When I dived my brown eyes in it, I could see far beyond, where little blue water sprites danced around the big fountain. And the taste, that refreshing, soothing taste, quenching my thirst, was peculiar only to that water – I had never ever tasted it before, or later.

Twenty years on, water is still as precious as it used to be back then. Just over a year ago my mother’s water supply suddenly ran dry. It turned her life into a living hell and mine into constant worry about how to solve the problem. First we thought it was only the winter and the pipes froze, but spring came and the pipes refused to cooperate. I’m not sure if anyone can possibly imagine how frustrating it is when you want to wash hands, or pour yourself a glass, and you open the tap which remains silent, not releasing even a gargling sound that normally follows the dry spells. She had to have water delivered by the fire brigade so she could cook, and I took care of her laundry. What a nightmare! So for the next six months she had to make do without, and our lives revolved around it until finally after all our nagging the water authority sorted out her problem with the help of a local patron who literally had to pull a few strings to get things started. What a relief! Our lives were back to normal.

She is extremely fortunate to be living in an urban area whereas there are a great many people buried deep in the Slovenian mountains or living in the middle of nowhere still relying solely on wells for their water supply. In Slovenia one thousand water systems supply over 90% of population. One of the special features is a large number of small wells and waterworks supplying just a small percentage of population. The systems have a lot of drawbacks which affect the quality of drinking water.

According to the statistics, Slovenia is one of the European countries with the richest water sources – 97% of underground water sources cater for all the users, and the remaining 3% come from surface water. There are 10,000 drinking water sources with the quality of water which can be compared to that in the developed countries. We are one of the very few to be able to drink water from the tap therefore we should consider ourselves lucky. All in all, we have nothing to fear. For now! But how long will the stores last? It has been forecast that by 2025 two thirds of world population will be facing water shortages, and as we all know, a man can live one month without food, but only 5 to 7 days without water. Is this going to be the end of us?

As far as the water consumption is concerned, fifty-five liters of water are used per person a day in Slovenia to meet various different needs from washing up, laundering, bathing to showering, which is far more than the UN minimum per person – 20 liters a day, and in urban areas the figures soar from approximately 150 liters a day to 250 or 300 liters. And I thought that the British were rather unsparing with 150 liters per person a day, seeing their houses equipped with bathtubs rather than showers, which have been a standard practice in Slovenia for years. In comparison with other European countries we do not lag behind – Spain with 265 liters per person a day is in the lead while Lithuania with only 85 liters per person a day comes last (Source: ARSO).

No matter how rich the country might be with water sources, there are about 400 ecological disasters in Slovenia annually. In most cases the reason for this is the spill of dangerous chemicals that trickle into the underground water, contaminating drinking water. According to some prognostic services, Slovenia is heading for water disaster.

Anton Kamat, an independent researcher, said “Slovenia is about to encounter a serious water stress. Water safety is in great danger and that poses a threat to the national security since it is not possible to imagine normal life and safe future without water. The worst possible scenario: water source Hrastje near the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, supplying 85 thousand inhabitants, might as well be forgotten not only for a while, but for good. The residue left by the solvents is non-degradable.”

Naturally, health inspectors try to reassure everybody, saying that water in the wider Ljubljana area is suitable for drinking, pointing at Prekmurje in the northeastern Slovenia, where apparently water is most contaminated due to intensive farming. Of course, the state is trying to convince the skeptics with promises of solid plans to eliminate the causes of contamination, but people will not be fooled.

According to Anton Kamat, we are handling water as a company in liquidation, and the dispersed competence, typical of this domain is telling us that the decision-making aptitude of the government and politics is questionable. The Ministry of the Environment is, of course, denying everything claiming that most of its time is dedicated to water.

A spokesperson for the Slovenian Consumer Society, Jana Peterman, corroborated Mr. Kamat’s findings, saying ”It is true that it was found with the monitoring in 2003 that 43% of Slovenian population is supplied with water from unsuitable water sources which need to be sanitized, so the government is trying to have us think they really know what they’re doing.” But for every positive response there’s a negative one. So who to believe?

The provision regulating the quality of drinking water in Slovenia is the Drinking Water Regulations which is in compliance with the European Union Directive. In 2000 the European Union adopted the directive which gives member states legal and professional starting points for common approach to managing water. The main objective of the “water directive” is achieving good chemical and ecological state of water by 2015, a state without any adverse effects on humans. In article 8, this directive calls for a program of monitoring of surface and underground water sources, one of the key assignments of Slovenian Agency for the Environment. In Slovenia monitoring has a long tradition, but in 2007 it was carried out for the first time in accordance with the requirements of the “water directive”. The first results of evaluation will be issued in 2009, by which time one third of the population might have been affected by poor or contaminated drinking water. Fortunately, the Slovenes are not great drinkers of water – they drink beer and wine to quench their thirst, so perhaps they are in less danger of contamination.

How can we solve the problem of water consumption in Slovenia? The answer is rainwater – food for thought for future generations. If we start using it, it is possible to supply 50% of clean drinking water in households (45 liters excluding bathing, washing up and drinking). I believe that Slovenian people in general are still unaware of how serious the situation is since in the constant quest for money, it is far more important to be well provided with consumer goods. Still, people do believe that the secret of youth can be theirs, not with the help of plastic surgery, but by drinking water, so the awareness that has been raised about the issue in the past few years has finally borne fruit – people are prepared to contribute their share to water preservation.