We can cope with the loss of telephone or electricity, but when water goes, we get desperate.

Every morning radio programmes hear the woes of some village or community and when we cannot take it anymore we are prepared to march (or pay a bribe to the truck driver).

Water is life! In this dry season when the heat is oppressive and the ground becomes parched and dry, we appreciate the fact that many religions use the symbol of water to remind us of our inner thirst for God's word and his life within us.

As we plunge into the cool water of Valencia or Shark River , as we seek out some remote waterfall to refresh ourselves, we recall our baptism when we too were re-created and reborn.

At our Easter ceremonies, we envied the neophytes being properly wet down. They seemed so radiant on emerging from the water of Baptism. But Baptism is not a one-night affair but an ongoing relationship with the one who wants to refresh, renew and recreate us in living water.