On Monday I took part in a walking tour of some of London's natural springs and ancient wells - not because as editor of KBzine I've often voiced my support for any scheme that helps conserve water, but because I'm a member of a choir whose leader was asked to co-host the tour.

'The Fellowship of The Spring - London Water Pilgrimage' took a 'human stream' of around 200 of us to some of these ancient water sources and we visited parts of London we never knew existed; a Roman bath for example, much like that in the city of Bath itself, (only far smaller) boasted crystal clear water; in stark contrast to the Thames which flowed just 50 metres away.

"Since time immemorial, people all over the world, have held water to be sacrosanct," said our leaders. "Humans have long held pilgrimages to the sources of streams, doused themselves in 'holy' lakes, made offerings on riverbanks or on the shores of oceans. These were not acts of blind worship: but regular, necessary nods to a deeply-known recognition of humanity's dependence on water and a keenly-felt gratitude for nature's benevolence. It is only quite recently that these habits have, for most of us, been forgotten.

"By resuming these rituals and behaviours and by caring for and paying attention to our waterways, we grow motivated to defend and protect their right to flow, to be free from pollution and to be able play their vital role in the broader web of nature. Water sustains us and every living thing: it slakes our thirst, it wets the soil and seeds from which our crops spring, it yields us fish. Water is where we go to play. We navigate it for adventure and escape, for discovery and communication, for income, for birth, burial and everything in between.

"Disregarding how deeply our lives are intertwined with water- wasting it, exploiting it, dumping waste and chemicals in it-is clearly now to court disaster, and extinction."

Wise words indeed... And in case you're wondering... yes, I did tell as many fellow 'pilgrims' as I could, about the water-saving products that are available and how best to find them, as well as how hard our industry is working to promote their use. Had I known about the tour prior to last week's broadcast of KBzine, I'd have been better prepared to spread the word. Perhaps next year then...

Yours,

Jan Hobbs