Precious Water

©mltainolegends
Pace has been slow as turtle at my place of employment...which would be nice except that there are many many other places I'd rather be...other things I could be doing...but then again...it is an opportunity given to write about a subject often on my mind...how lucky most of us...here......are to be able to access harnessed water to use as we wish...and...unfortunately... in the quantities we want...
When I open a tap at home...water gushes out clear...cold...and delicious...having been drawn up from a mountain spring...100 feet underground. It was not always this way - when I first moved to the mountains there was no running water in the then one room cabin... there was a well but water had to be hauled manually several hundred feet in 5 gallon containers. A hardy task...especially during the winter months when several feet of snow covered the ground. When one does not have running water...everything takes on a new dimension...water has to be heated...for cooking... washing dishes... bodies...and clothes...a task...with three small children... Every drop of that five gallons becomes precious...and one soon develops a sense of how much is normally wasted...how it's taken for granted... when all one has to do to obtain it is turn on the faucet... That experience especially has helped me to remain conscious that water is not to be wasted...or harmed....
There are many who do not have tapped water...often...not by choice...like on some of the reservations... and other poverty stricken areas pocketing the abounding wealth. When I went back to Haiti a few years ago...water was in short demand...the "affluent" inhabitants did have a limited amount of running water due to their being able to purchase water to store in cisterns...state or city provided water is non-existent...but those in the poor areas... the slums... and the rural areas do not have such access...and most have to do their bathing...and clothes washing...in rivers and creeks...if they're lucky enough to have such water sources nearby...and have to haul their drinking and other water from the same places...which are often contaminated from the use of "modern" cleaning agents... instead of traditional cleansing herbs and plants. Disease is rampant due to the lack of clean and potable water.
The last few years...this area I live in has seen drought...and the governmental "rationing" of water instituted in the spring and summer months....much to the whining complaints of those who have to...space out days on which they can wash their cars or water their lawns... Talk about a twisting of priorities...how I wonder...would these complainers fare if their taps were cut off...it they had to live even a couple of days without the ability to access this precious...vanishing...gift...from the Earth...whose oceans make up about two thirds of its body...like the saline water of life in ours...and account for almost all of our drinking water. Maybe they don't know that in 1999 there were about 50 coastal areas earthwide which were considered...dead...where life could not be sustained...due to the killing effect of residential...vehicular...and industrial toxic pollutants...in 2004 there were 150...and the number continues to grow. Think we can all read the math on this one.....visualize as coupled with the rapid ravaging of Earth's rainforests...where 50 to 90 percent of her species live...including millions of our own...and which are home to many of the medicinal plants used for milleniums by Earth's native peoples and now used as a base for "advanced" medicines. Rainforests which it is estimated will disappear in 30 to 50 years if the current...greed driven...pillaging continues. That's around the corner...so scary and heartwrenching...to think of the terrible consequences which our young ones will have to face headon in adulthood... But...hope remains nonetheless...as each and every one of us...can...still...choose to live...in ways to turn the tide of disaster we've created... boomeranging back straight for us..............


©mltainolegends