FLOW

I received multiple emails over the week prior to World Water Day.  I pursued a dozen links, read a lot of information and watched a very powerful documentary “FLOW: for love of water” by Irena Salina.   (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmWdco0glEA)  The images, data and voices of those who are affected by the growing water crisis continue to swirl around in my mind.  Some facts just made me cry, primarily because of the greed behind much of the shortage.  We are not only polluting water; corporations are controlling water, selling this resource in buckets for those who will pay and dribbling it out for those who can’t.  Water is a $400 billion dollar investment!  That’s a 2008 film!  

My purpose for this blog is to digest and use this information as catalyst for change.  There are many blogs and websites of fantastic organizations that can provide the data, the economic and environmental analyses.  I can become paralyzed by this information and sense of doom.  I cannot be the only one who feels this powerless.  But, unlike many of my neighbors who gave up recycling because they didn’t see results, I want to feel empowered.  The key to turning the tide on the water crisis asteroid that is barreling down on earth is education and feeling a connection to those who want to change it.  Giving money to a fantastic organization like Water for People is a big drop, but a lonely one.  So, I try to do my part.  And, like water, trickle, seep, drip and blurble out to friends and family, hoping to be flexible, energized and clear.    As Zolani Mahola from Freshlyground says in an interview, “We are an integral part of earth and all beings”.  She sings the “For Love of Water” song found on http://forloveofwater.co.za/. 

As I write this I am experiencing that same feeling of stuckness.  I am someone who wants to do.  To this end, I have stopped buying bottled water altogether, but my workplace buys big bottles of Poland Springs for the cooler.  Nestle owns Poland Springs as well as Perrier, Ice Mountain and Pellegrino.  Nestle has been active in diminishing aquifers in Michigan and other US states which has greatly affected their ecosystems.  Internationally, they are notorious for tapping aquifers so deeply that in poor rural communities like Bhati Dilwan in Pakistan the children are being sickened by filthy water. Nestlé dug a deep well that is depriving locals of potable water. The notoriously bad drinking water in Pakistan and elsewhere is the reason for the success of the Pure Life brand. A good 10 years ago, the Swiss food company began adding minerals to ground water and bottling it. Today, Pure Life Purified Water Enhanced With Minerals is the largest water brand in the world – “a jewel in our portfolio,” according to John Harris, head of Nestlé Waters.  This information is from “Bottled Life” by Swiss filmmaker Urs Schnell and journalist Res Gehriger.  The Bhati Dilwan village councilor interviewed in the film says Nestlé refused the village’s request for clean water to be piped in.  So, I will not drink the water from the cooler anymore, bring water from home and work on my employers to switch water companies.  More on tap water and bottled water for another day!