Safe, Sacred or for Sale?
VOICES ACROSS BOUNDARIES
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'Water is life' is rather like 'God is love': one of those truisms that overwhelms us and leaves us silent with its significance. Alternatively, we often see water as so universal -- so common, even -- that we take it for granted. Many of us Westerners fail to appreciate water because we live within a paradigm of the world where water is not all that important. We tend to think of the world as a 'machine' (that doesn't need much water) rather than as a 'body' (that needs lots of it).
Sallie McFague in "Seeking a New Paradigm"
Despite common emphasis on drinking water, the world's major water problem is not water to drink but water to grow food. In the coming quarter century, the difficulty of supplying enough food with good nutritional qualities will be more of a meta-problem than keeping warm, getting around, and powering industry on the one hand, or than having enough water to drink and maintain a household, on the other.
David Brooks in "Saving the Earth by Saving Water"
The Biblical stories of the conflict and resolution over water between Abimelech, Abraham and Isaac touch on several important environmental issues: dominion over resources within and outside one's territory; sharing resources under scarcity; and intergenerational equity. These stories are instructive for consideration of the moral basis of international water law, especially since the Middle East -- specifically, Israel and Palestine -- is the touchstone for much concern about international relations and the potential for water-related conflict.
Paul Kay in "Water, the Bible and International Law"
Some First Nations in the Northwest Territories are willing to consider damming their own lands to supply power to the diamond mines and pipeline compressor stations that currently depend on diesel generators. This is supported by some environmentalists as a green alternative to fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately the same laws of physics still apply. The La Grande complex in James Bay flooded over 10,000 km2 of land to generate 15,000 megawatts in a deep valley in the Pre-Cambrian shield. To generate similar levels of power, flooding would have to be even more extensive in the wide and shallow sedimentary valley of the Mackenzie.
Petr Cizek in "Hydro Hype and Dam Delusions in the Canadian North"
The rains mocked them for the second year in succession. Drought knocked at the doorstep. Standing outside her hut Thaamarai squinted at the skies above. Her eyes prickled and watered. Hot air slapped her cheeks. The smell of choking dust was everywhere. She shaded her eyes with her palm and cast her gaze across the landscape. Shrubs and trees were cloaked in filthy brown. Leaves crackled to the touch. The earth fissured and cracked under her feet, parched for a drink of life-giving water. What a long cruel wait! Could they hope for a miracle this year? The villagers had offered special prayers at the temple to appease Varuna, the God of Rain, and a fervent prayer on their lips that their crops be saved. They wooed him with fruit and flowers, incense and camphor. Varuna was in a playful mood, it appeared, for he sent pregnant clouds their way, darkened the skies and lit hope, then blew a gust of wind that, in moments, scattered the rain clouds.
Uma Girish in "The Lotus Flower -- A Story"