Water Column

In their April 2010, Special Water Edition, National Geographic Magazine announced its formal commitment “to explore the World of Water.” Marked in the “Editor’s Note” this proclamation was officially enacted with the appointment of Sandra Postel as the Society’s first National Geographic Freshwater Fellow. “The initiative she heads will not only educate, it will ‘reshape how people and communities think about, use, and manage fresh water. It will provide the tools to enable individuals, corporations, and communities to become part of the solution.’” But what needs reshaping? Aren’t water issues pretty straight forward? If you’re thirsty, drink some. Flipping through the pages of the National Geographic Special Water Edition, one begins to get the picture; mixed in with articles focusing on water scarcity in Africa and breath taking images of large bodies of water, pristine aquifers, and holy water rituals, are advertisements from Pepsi Cola, Monsanto, and large pharmaceutical companies like Bayer. It seems at the very least ironic and, to me, flat-out tasteless to read eye- catching phrases like “Sacred Waters” or “Water is Life” and then see the very companies responsible for water pollution and water supply land grabs portrayed as concerned corporate citizens. Interestingly enough, I recently discovered a previous National Geographic Special Water Edition published in 1993. In that edition there are no advertisements and the focus was entirely on the United States’ water supply and the big ticket, technocrat friendly water projects. Images of huge dams, manmade lakes and large networks of piping and tunnels fill those pages. In that introduction by the editor, the problem of water is chalked up to population and individual use; it seems that the context was missing then, as well as a critical perspective which has only grown to now be co-opted by the marketing trend of “going green.”

Within the past several decades, humanity’s relationship to water has changed dramatically and the world is facing some pretty dire consequences. According to leading water justice activists, such a Maude Barlow, the world is facing two synergistic crises around water. For one, the world is running out of fresh water. While freshwater is not a completely finite source (since it is replenished by the global hydrologic cycle) it is a limited one. Only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater and more than 2% of that is locked away in glaciers, leaving less than 1% to be used by the entirety of humanity for agriculture, industry, and personal use. The water sources that we do have are becoming increasingly polluted. Phrases like “Peak Water” are already being used to describe this problem and professionals like Peter Gleick are leading the way. Second, more and more people are living without access to clean water; something like 1 out of every 8 people on earth lack access to clean water and it’s estimated that 10 million people die every year from water-borne diseases. But more than water-borne diseases, water can be contaminated by radioactive particles (Hello nuclear power plant) and any one of the 500,000 man-made chemicals. Both of these crises are compounded by the growing economy of water.

In January of 1992, the United Nations officially cited water as an “economic good.” Like coffee or tea, water became a commodity, and like other commodities, Wall Street Indexes were formed and water-for-profit was internationally legitimized. But what happens when water is sold? Well, nothing for those that can afford it. Those that can’t must find other sources of water, sources that are often compromised and contaminated. In the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - the precursor to the World Trade Organization - water was listed as a “good” that can be traded and exported. This is to say that a shift has occurred in the way that we view water and its supply. Suddenly water moved from a common resource that should be provided at a minimum cost to citizens by governments to its modern Neoliberal progeny of being a “good” that can be sold for a profit by private corporations with legal impunity to whoever can afford it. Furthermore, now there are powerful cartels of Corporations, Trade Agencies, World Banks, and their NGO’s that are solidifying their strangle hold on large bodies of water. With desalination plants (plants that treat salt water and produce freshwater), large dams, treatment plants, bottling plants, and new infrastructure popping up around the world, water has become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Here in Olympia the issue of water revolves around: providing water (supplying), the building and maintenance of infrastructure, securing viable sources, extrapolating future demand, treating waste water, and restoring water sources along with conservation education. It is important to keep in mind that as water use goes, 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture. If there is to be comprehensive change in water use, we must address the commercial agriculture complex’s use of water. Industry makes up another 20% of water use (i.e. coal burning power plants, fracking, mineral extraction, etc.) leaving 10% for personal use.

This column isn’t about helping you make better consumer choices - although I hope it does. It’s about informing and encouraging you to look at yourself as more than a consumer, to explore what can be done as an active, concerned, and informed citizen.
One might look around Olympia and think that water isn’t an issue. After all the Heritage Park Fountain spews water like Old Faithful and the Artesian Wells flow 24 hours a day, year around. As residents of Thurston County we are very fortunate, we get most of our water from groundwater aquifers. But even those water sources are dwindling. For one, our population is growing every year (p.s. welcome to all the incoming freshmen). And two, we use a lot of water. Sometime when you’re free, go downtown to the newly built Water Education and Technology (WET) Center on Thurston Ave. and Adams St. located in the new LOTT (Lacy, Olympia, Tumwater, Thurston County) Clean Water Alliance’s building; inside you’ll find a large calculator that can help you calculate your personal water use and compare your water use to County, National and Global water use averages. I found out I used 50 gallons a day! Yeah, no one’s perfect and we all start with informing ourselves. The Water Column was created as an informational tool, but more than that as a source to begin the conversations around water issues here in Olympia.

The LOTT Alliance has acknowledged that over usage of water is an issue here in Washington. Just this past March the Governor’s office released a statement that snowpack i the Washington Cascade Mountain Range was more than 25% below average, and because of that the likelihood of a severe drought was greatly increased. The Governor asked for additional “relief funds” to be set aside and allocated to high risk areas and industries. Less snow fall in the winter means less snowmelt in spring or just less snow left after the melt in spring. Which means water shortages are coming to Olympia.

On a positive note in July of 2010 the United Nations voted to include Article 31, the right to clean water, in the Declaration of Human Rights. People are fighting and some battles are being won.