And no, not at all in relation to our country, but in relation to the Europeans themselves. Both continental, EU, and insular, British. Writes Elena Karaeva
The music didn’t play for long: before the Europeans had time to trumpet to the whole world that they “managed to live the winter without Russian gas and Russian oil”, since the winter turned out to be warm, they were immediately cut short by meteorologists. Above-zero temperatures with a minimum of precipitation mean the depletion of the already frail fresh water reserves of the continent. In this case, we are talking not only about traditional water arteries like rivers, which are used, among other things, for freight transportation, but also about groundwater.
In the European news agenda, the more the geopolitical crisis goes on, the more it is forced out by purely internal problems, the red lights are already starting to flash. If in winter the population was urged to save energy, today the authorities are beginning to prepare society for new restrictive measures. And no, not at all in relation to our country, but in relation to the Europeans themselves. Both continental, EU, and insular, British.
The United Kingdom is already considering a ban on the production and installation of plumbing fixtures (such as showers and toilets) that use “a lot of water”. Obviously, all this design with different water pressure, all these massage amenities, all these devices for flushing waste products with several buttons can simply disappear.
There, in the list of “forbidden”, Jacuzzi will certainly be added. In general, everything that requires a large consumption of water in everyday life, if you remain in the paradigm of bureaucratic logic, will be banned. The British, who are still proud of the fact that, unlike the continent, they still live with taps without mixers and with bathtubs in which water (once poured) serves to wash the whole family, they will certainly treat this with understanding.
With their eternal rivals, the French decided to do otherwise. These will be beaten in the pocket – the most intelligible way to convey to a nation in which the miser Gobsek is practically a national hero, that water is now a luxury item. In the literal sense of the word.
The president himself, having visited the Alps and looked at the shallow water bodies, stated this unambiguously. It is assumed that a certain “hygienic minimum” will be sold by supply companies inexpensively, and for everything above this indicator, the price will be raised so that especially stubborn clean and neat people will not be left with a choice.
Or once again wash or wash – or buy food. And this is by no means a hypothesis, not a dystopia and not a joke – this is the reality that the inhabitants of the “European garden” will have to reckon with in the near future.
And if, in the end, with oil and gas, albeit at a multiple of the cost high in comparison with Russian prices, you can run around the world and get hold of somewhere, then water, all the more clean and fresh, no one can sell to the EU for any money will not be. And storages, as well as infrastructure for the uninterrupted supply of Europeans and the European industry with H 2 O in the required quantities, simply do not exist.
The fact that the Europeans will have to stretch their legs for some water was reported at a UN conference held at the end of March. The statistics are completely ruthless to those who consider the presence of clean water in the tap the norm, while a quarter of the world’s population does not even know what plumbing is.
The “European Garden”, which may soon be banned from watering, will predictably end up in the end.
This article is translated in English from RIA Novosti
