The President of the International Astronomical Union, Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, has been visiting South Africa for two weeks, which is a long time out of her schedule. Here she describes how it is that some of the water on Earth originated before Earth was made. So next time you take a sip of water, think that it may be older than the Earth itself! This puts an extra spin on the term fresh water. Some of it is billions of years old. If you'd like to hear more from the person at the top, go to the cosmic savannah podcast where you can find a longer programme about her visit.