2013 is the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation.
My blog post for World Water Day 2012
Needless to say, water knows no borders and cannot be permanently contained; the Pacific Ocean I wade in knee-deep has been all over the planet! A few facts about boundaries and borders: • Transboundary river basins cover 46% of the globe's terrestrial surface.
• Close to 450 agreements related to international waters were signed between 1820 and 2007.
• There are 276 transboundary river basins in the world: 64 in Africa; 60 in Asia; 68 in Europe; 46 in North America; 38 in South America. About two-thirds are shared by two countries, 256 or 93% of those 276 shared by 2, 3 or 4 countries, and 20 (7.2%) out of 276 shared by 5 or more countries. 18 countries share the Danube river basin.
Ever since they started establishing settlements, human creatures with their proprietary nature have imagined owning land, and marked the boundaries of their particular plots; nations and nation-states to follow suit. However, for political, economic, cultural, and other reasons, some borders, fences, and walls long have been more "porous" or easy to pass through than others. In his Mending Wall, Poet Robert Frost explains part of the why.
Just as water is boundless, the planetary need for water knows no cultural, political, or economic boundaries. How can we steward the gift of water more faithfully? In a recent Friday 5 about making healthy cuts in our lives, I had some ideas that also work well for this year of water cooperation:
• Don't dump toxic anything in the sink, gutters, storm drains—all of it reaches and grieves the rivers and oceans, and makes all creation less healthy.
• Keep beach boardwalks and sand clean and pristine! Sea plants and sea creatures depend on it; so does everyone on land, human and plant and critter alike.
• Who needs all those in-ground pools, especially in the desert? Reduce climate change!
• Buy local produce! In season fruits and veggies are fresher and more natural, less engineered, taste brighter and better; less long distance hauling means less depletion of oil, lower dependence on fossil fuels. For today's World Water Day, I'll add buying local is less water-intensive, too. Here in Southern California, San Diego County imports 80% of its water supply—mostly from Northern California and the Colorado River.
• Special addition to my list for WWD: San Diego is a coastal desert... sometimes hard to believe, since the Pacific Ocean is our western border! If you have a yard to tend to, serve on your HOA board, or wield other influences, why not consider xeriscaping or another yard treatment that requires minimal water? Green grass lawns began in rainy England, where no one ever imagined not having enough precipitation from the sky to keep them lush and verdant!
We have only one planet; the oceans and rivers are its circulatory system, so please treat them well, and help make 2013 a World Water Year.
#water #creation #worldwaterday #watercooperation #unwater
Some very good ideas to help save water! As we've seen from some recent videos and photos, our garbage can end up easily in waterways, and affect islands thousands of miles from human habitation. We need to realize that even the smallest actions have consequences!
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