By the
pond Drowning in tragedy, let us pray for water
By ARTHUR JONES
Izaak Walton (1593-1683), an English writer known best for The
Compleat Angler, a literary discourse on fishing, quoted a Spanish proverb
that rivers and inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men
to contemplate and fools to pass by without consideration. Ah, bliss.
Today we have to add in idiots who dump in their trash, scam
artists who trickle their oil down the culvert at night, research chemists
tipping their wastes into the soil -- you know the list.
If theres any of Waltons watery inhabitants (fish) in
my pond, theyre still in the sardine can.
The water in my pond isnt fit to drink. Its not deep
enough to swim in nor clean enough to wash in.
However, two-thirds of it are covered with ice, and this day in
late February, theres a softness to the scene, the first dusting of
winter snow Greater Beltway Washington has witnessed in 1999.
Here we have the topic: water, its quality, its availability, its
essential utility to human and animal alike, and its pollutedness -- whether
runoff from geese and cattle, or runoff from pesticides and industrial
manufacturing.
Recounting the issues isnt sufficient.
The greatest barrier to fully grasping any topic concerning the
environment or ecology is the sheer scale of the problems and the complexities
of the interrelationships. Solely to grapple with water, and see
the water problem with some distance and clarity requires a huge
canvas.
Lets dip a toe into the inter-relatedness.
We pollute the skies from smokestacks and exhaust pipes, produce
acid rain or just plain old dirty rain and drop it on land and watersheds and
water alike.
This polluted rain adds its noxious mix to the other runoff such
as pesticides and chemicals waiting to be washed into streams, rivers,
tidewaters and bays -- all human water sources.
The runoff in turn kills the submerged aquatic vegetation (grasses
and reeds) of the fish-breeding grounds, pollutes the bottom-feeders and the
oyster beds. We become short on baby fish in a world already over-fished.
Not all rivers make it to the bay. River water is diverted to
cities or agriculture, dammed for power and dredged for gravel. Many U.S.
rivers are already subdivided beyond their sustainability as a river.
Thats telling us were using more than weve
got.
Bodies of water, like lakes, have their own sustainability
problems, from silt to strangers. Giant perch were introduced into
Africas Lake Victoria to provide a bigger fish to harvest. The voracious
perch have now consumed practically all the native species.
The perch also provide a new interrelatedness factor: What to do
with giant perch once youve caught them? Smoke them so they can be
transported to market. To smoke them, burn the trees. The land with no trees
begins to wash into the lake. The lake begins to silt up. The vegetation and
organisms that nurture and feed the fish are being destroyed. The silt alters
the mineral content of the water.
Humans have a colossal, direct impact on water everywhere.
All of Chinas rivers are polluted, and its huge population
is water-short. It has 8 percent of the worlds renewable freshwater and
21 percent of the worlds population. Water shortages spell disease. Not
only because good water sources are needed for drinking, but because a reliable
water supply is essential to sanitation.
Around 1.5 billion people have no safe water and sanitation.
Eighty percent of the people in India, 700 million people, defecate into
buckets or onto open land. In Bangladesh its 90 percent.
Then comes more interrelatedness. Dirty ground water is drawn from
feces-polluted sources. Where theres no sanitation, dirty water is stored
in dirty containers (dirty because they cannot be washed) open to airborne,
parasite-, insect- and animal-borne diseases.
Those diseases are behind high infant and maternal mortality
statistics.
So what do we all do, go to a quiet corner and slash our wrists?
No. The facts are like flagellation. We bathe the wounds and head back into the
fray. Weve only got one life, and were hoping to hand life on to
all those little kids -- including Western kids who, just for the moment, can
believe that water is something to splash in at the beach, drop a fishing line
into at the pond and have with ice cubes at home.
Theyll have to know at some point that we and they together
have a responsibility to all those billions who dont have water.
America has a recent blip of hope. The U.S. Geological Survey
reports U.S. freshwater withdrawals have leveled off since 1980, despite a
rising population.
Great news -- except that even at these levels, we still
havent sufficient water, long-term.
And meanwhile? Well, former senator Paul Simon in his book,
Tapped Out: the Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It
(Welcome Rain), favors desalination plants to increase supply but has little to
offer by way of other action. He suggests writing to Congress (he knows better
than that), or, hey ho! letters to the editor.
Prayer sounds more promising.
Heres two from Prayers for the Common Good (Pilgrim
Press) and two from Celtic Invocations (Vineyard Books).
From the Quran
It is He who sends down to you out of heaven water of
which you may drink and by which (grow) trees, for you to pasture your
herds, and thereby He brings forth for you crops, and olives, and
palms, and vines, and all manner of fruit.
From Psalm 24
The earth is Gods and all that is in it, the
world and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and
established it on the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of God?
Day of St. Columba
O God of the sea, Put weed in the drawing wave To
enrich the ground And shower on us food.
Fishing Blessing
In His name I sprinkle the water Upon everything
within my court. Thou King of deeds and powers above, Thy fishing
blessing pour down on us. I will sit me down with an oar in my
grasp, I will row me seven hundred and seven strokes. I will cast
down my hook, The first fish which I bring up In the name of Christ,
King of the elements, The poor shall have it at his wish.
The sentiment is reassuring: Begin with the poor. Alas, the the
solution to poverty once was Dont give a man a fish, give him a rod
and teach him to fish. When there are no fish, thats problematic.
When there is no water, thats tragic.
Arthur Jones is NCR editor at large.
National Catholic Reporter, March 19,
1999
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