Water

Comment by mary sky on May 23, 2009 at 10:16

In Peru at the monent there is political strife where government is trying to deprive farmers around Cosco of water which is there livlihood. On a deeper psychological level, water comprises up to 80% of our bodies. We are water along with a combination of the other elements. To bring water into the realm of politics and material gain is to "lose" ourselves. In the material worls we become a commodity to be exploited.... we must/can NEVER allow this.
Blessed water, blessed be.......
great John, flow on dear heart

Comment by John Baker on May 23, 2009 at 11:33

And over here there's been a creeping process of water privatisation for the last several years. Part of a global trend involving groups like the IMF and WTO through so called trade agreements like GATS (Global Agreement on Trade in Services) and vastly benefiting trans-national corporations like Monsanto and Bechtel.

Back over in the UK, Thames Water Authority is now owned by a German multinational. Over here the government is stealthily moving towards water metering starting with big businesses (fair enough maybe) now moving onto smaller businesses, even people working from home and when they have that covered they will go for ordinary householders like you and me. Have no doubt that if we let them they will hand over control of the water supply system to big business.
Most new houses have a fitting for a meter attached at the connector. Have a look if you don't believe me. It's under that little horse shoe shaped cover normally on the pavement outside yr front gate.

Adding insult to injury, we are having fluoride ( in the form of a by product of the aluminium industry) and chlorine added to our water, without consent under the guise of protecting our teeth and protecting us from germs, and the water supply system that we have is crap with vast amounts of the water leaking out into the soil.

There is an argument that water charges are required to maintain and develop the distribution and treatment system, which kind of makes sense, but it depends on who we are handing over control of it to; a socially and environmentally responsible organisation accountable to the communities it serves or a greedy predator of a multi-national with a head office in America or somewhere.

The difference between us and somewhere like Peru or Bolivia is that over here we think water comes out of a tap whereas over there they know that clean water for drinking, cooking, washing and irrigation is not something to take for granted and so they are more ready to fight to protect it than we are and have a greater sense of the necessary solutions.
When an American TNC, Bechtel tried to privatise the water in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba it led to months of protest and the government was forced to kick the company out. The inhabitants of the city and the surrounding countryside then set up a series of co-operatives to manage the equitable and ecological distribution and management of water in the region.
http://www1m.mesh.ne.jp/~apec-ngo/english/water/2002_speech_Pablo_Solon.htm
The last time they tried to introduce water charges in Ireland some people did time in prison to oppose it, we need to go a lot further than that to really sort this one out.
Matters as fundamental to Life as water and food are too important to leave in the hands of governments or business. They must be brought back under the control of people who depend on them.

Of course, in a culture that expends vast amounts of money and energy bringing water up to drinkable quality and then shits in it, wasting fertility, and creating a pollution problem in one go (as it were), we have a long road to walk.

Comment by John Baker on May 23, 2009 at 12:18

As a counterpoint to my previous rant I want to draw attention to a different form of water treatment and distribution.
Nature. Water is an inextricable part of the planet's ecosystem and depends on it's health to work effectively. It extends from deep in the Earth's crust out to the furthest reaches of the atmosphere and uses all forms of life from minerals through plants to animals in it's functions. A scientist might call this the hydrological cycle. I call it Life.

I am fascinated by this because it provides me with a sense as to how we can go about restoring our home after years of abuse and neglect. Look at the journey water makes. Falling from the clouds as rain, percolating deep into the ground, filtering through tree roots and rock and emerging from wells and springs that were so important to our ancestors that they gave them names and held them as sacred, understanding the different properties of each spring and how their relationship to place and people mattered.
It seems a lot more sensible to me than viewing water as some inert substance that we happen to need, putting it through mechanical filters and centifruges, adding things to it, taking things out of it, trying to make money out of it, without any sense that we should give it some love and respect. When I think of one process I feel uplifted and enlivened, when I think of the other I feel the beginnings of depression coming on and I've spent enough of my life being depressed, so I know where I'm going to put my attention from now on. I know the feeling of the situation I'm trying to bring about, though I may not know the exact form yet.

Something I am constantly drawn to is the relationship between trees and water. A stream flowing through a forest over the roots of ancient trees feels more alive, more vital than one flowing down a concrete culvert and I become more alive from being in such an environment. I get a sense of water being drawn high up into the canopy and evaporated out into the atmosphere. I get a sense that the trees have somehow added something to it and enriched the quality of life around them through this action and in that concrete culvert space I feel the lack of this so keenly, as a sorrow deep in my soul, that we could have been so detached from life as to tear down those trees, concrete over the soil and leave that water and ourselves in such a depleted state that many of us are so accustomed to that it feels like normal life.

As a culture we worry about making water safe to drink, about getting enough of it, seeking technological solutions for a problem that is due to a lack of awareness and we fail to recognise water for what it is. I would far rather that we could turn our attention to removing harmful substances from our environment altogether, that we could look to Nature for the solutions to our problems, that rather than trying to build water treatment and supply systems separate from Nature we could face the pain we have inflicted on ourselves and the Earth and go some way to healing it by re-integrating ourselves and our life systems with the natural world.
Planting trees is important, and keeping water pure is important. We can solve both these problems by reforesting our river banks so that the trees form a band of protection stopping pollutants from getting into the water. They also help keep the water temperature constant which can regulate erosion, more importantly still being in such an environment lifts our spirit and raises our consciousness. We take in some of the wisdom that brought our planet to such a state that we were able to come into being in the first place and it is that wisdom that will bring us out of the mess we have created.
.

Comment by Nickibopp on July 27, 2009 at 15:50

Lifetime Lab Water Open Day - Cork

Lifetime Lab run a very successful Water Open Day as part of Heritage
Week. The date for this year is Saturday August 29th. The day involves
volunteers operating information/activity stands revolving around the
themes of water.

If interested please contact
mervyn_horgan@corkcity.ie


Date For Your Diary

Event: Water Open Day

Date: Saturday 29th August 2009

Time: 11.00-17.00


Further information on Heritage week is available at www.heritageweek.ie

Comment by mary sky on November 19, 2009 at 9:12

I Love water

Look at all this water we are privy to this morning. ITS EVERYWHERE.

Comment by John Baker on November 23, 2009 at 18:23

The rain that brings balance.
It's a good time to get the idea out that if we planted more trees along waterways and up in our highlands they would slow down the amount of water reaching the rivers and the effects of flooding might be alleviated somewhat. The trees would also allow more water down to replenish the water table instead of rushing off with who knows how many thousands of tons of valuable top soil and they would grow into a valuable ecological and economic resource

Comment by Nickibopp on November 24, 2009 at 12:41

Damn straight John - would you write one for de paaper I'm sure they would print it would not be a waste of time.

Add a Comment