Glistening Brooks

 

water scarcity, water rights, water democracy

When I was a kid, my friends and I could hop on our bikes, ped­al a mile or so and cup our hands to fetch and drink deli­cious, clean, ice-cold, fresh spring water. We knew the water was safe and nev­er dreamed that it would dis­ap­pear or that oth­ers could not have what we did. When I hear of the phe­nom­e­nal num­bers of peo­ple in the world with­out access to clean water, I am stunned. When I find myself not trust­ing the water flow­ing out of my tap or hear about impend­ing and already occur­ring scarci­ty, I am stunned. Water and humans go togeth­er. There should be no assign­ing of priv­i­lege with access to this basic ele­men­tal right. Nor should there be cor­po­rate prac­tices that hoard, mis­use, or defile our water. If you’d like some facts on water, check out this Unit­ed Nations fact sheet. Stag­ger­ing.