World Water Day

We plan our cities near water; we bathe in water; we play in water; we work with water. Our economies are built on the strength of water transportation - and the products we buy and sell are all partly water, in one way or another. Our daily lives are built on water, and shaped by it. Without the water that surrounds us - the humidity of the air, the roughness of the river's current, the flow from the kitchen tap - our lives would be impossible.

In recent decades, water has fallen in our esteem. No longer an element to be revered and protected, it is a consumer product that we have shamefully neglected. Eighty percent of our bodies are formed of water, and two thirds of the planet's surface is covered by water: water is our culture, our life.

The theme 'Water and Culture' of WWD 2006 draws attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world. Sacred, water is at the heart of many religions and is used in different rites and ceremonies. Fascinating and ephemeral, water has been represented in art for centuries - in music, painting, writing, cinema - and it is an essential factor in many scientific endeavours as well.

Each region of the world has a different way of holding water sacred, but each recognizes its value, and its central place in human lives. Cultural traditions, indigenous practices, and societal values determine how people perceive and manage water in the world's different regions.

I find it very depressing how we treat water in North America. Everyday I see people running water from the taps much longer than is nessicary, taking too long showers or drinking bottled water. THAT'S the worst! I remember having a conversation once with a friend of mine, who is a wonderful person and very progressive, but she would not let her son drink anything other than bottled water!?!?! She actually said to me "Does anyone really drink tap water these days?" I felt like shaking her and yelling "Do you know how many mothers, in how many countrys would give up their first born child just so the other eight could have access to the clean drinking water that we take for granted?" But seeing as we were in a semi-professional situation at the time, I just smiled and nodded. Fact of the matter is though North Americans are a very small percentage of human beings that have acess to safe drinking water simply by turning a tap handle. Although not all of them do. Never mind this.

It just aggravates me that people in Toronto, where the water is safe, would use up energy in the manufactureing and recyling of plastic bottles just so they don't have to drink tap water.

I'm not sure how I should mark this day. I thought about the idea of not using any water at all except to drink, but then I realized that I was badly in need of a shower. So instead I have decided to meditate on all that water means to me. I grew up on the water, I have spent a great many days in canoes in northern Ontario and I love no other sound more than the gentle lapping of water on the shore.

There is a great song by K'naan in which he incoperates the sound of water played on a loop. The lyrics are all about how vital a part of life water was to him growing up in Somalia. The songs ends with the chant:

My people drum on water, drink on water
live on water, die for water.