Animal Person
Submitted by Animal Person
I watched Flow last night and though I did know about the evils of water privatization in other countries, I had no idea that communities (Michigan is featured) right here in the US are fighting huge multi-nationals for their own water. I suppose I just hadn’t put enough thought into it, but oil and water are in fact very similar in the way large corporations have swooped into areas where they have no business being, to take the local resources and sell them back to the local people at enormous mark-ups.
I did know that such companies steal water (and oil) from local people in other countries, promising them improved access or health or housing, and I did know of the very, very dark side of dams (particularly the Three Gorges Dam in China, with its environmental ravaging and displacing of over a million people).
And as we’ve all heard by now, I did know that most bottled water is basically the same as tap water. (And there’s a hilarious yet sad Penn & Teller segment where restaurant goers buy expensive water in a bottle that has a french name on it, and the water was from a hose.)
And let me just say that on the occasions that I have bought bottled water, such as in airports because I couldn’t bring my own, I felt nearly as bad as if I bought a hamburger. But it’s time I feel as bad as if the water was a burger. I don’t want to be part of this particular problem anymore, and though it’s not much of a big deal, I am committed to getting herbal tea rather than water in airports.
The remaining issue, which is geographic in nature, is that we need to keep probably a dozen gallons (I usually buy distilled water) for hurricane season, which started this week. We needed to use them only one year (2004, when Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne came a-calling), but also discovered that we should keep more than a dozen. You don’t realize how much water you use until you don’t have any or can’t use what you have and also don’t have the means to boil it. I don’t know what to do about this, and I have looked into some rainwater capture ideas that my neighborhood would allow and that are affordable.
One billion people on Planet Earth do not have access to clean drinking water and 80% of all sickness and disease is caused by unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation. Charity:Water brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations and their site explains how dire the situation it is. Water is killing them, and water can save them.
I probably take water for granted less than the average suburbanite in the US because I’ve been surrounded by it, yet been unable to use it (after Hurricanes). For that to be my long-term relationship with water is unfathomable. Yet that’s what a billion people deal with every day.
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