Fear death without, not by, water

The elixir of life? Some, in ancient times, believed it to be the philosopher's stone. Alchemists across ages and cultures tried to formulate it. Emperors in ancient China sought it to become immortal. Ancient Indian texts call it amrita, loosely described as nectar. Still others thought it was soma rasa, an intoxicating drink popular in ancient India.

But perhaps the Arabs came closest to its real meaning, describing it as aab-e-hayaat (where aab means water and hayaat life). Indeed, water today has become the scarcest essential resource - we are talking about freshwater here.

It is this scarcity that has prompted the Beijing municipal government to look to recycled water to fulfill the city's needs. The local administration has said one-fourth of its water needs, including road cleaning and municipal garden watering, would come from sewage treatment plants. This, by any measure, is a welcome development.