Presentation on Water Equity
I will be presenting an overview on Wellness and then
look at some issues and potential remediations that might be implemented on a
global scale to address the imbalance of access to safe drinking water
I view WELLNESS and
HEALTH are different aspects of the human experience. Specifically, as they
relate to Hospice Care which is my primary educational focus. HEALTH is the
measurable functioning of individual body systems to assess the overall
functional level of that body (aka our “meat suit”). These measurements provide
data that can be used to adjust levels of medication, hydration, nutrients and
pain management options. This for me is the technical part of caring for the
physical body, similar to the maintenance and care that is required to keep a
vehicle in optimal operating condition.
WELLNESS is a less analytical measurement, and is
subjective to the person involved. What one person sees as optimal conditions
for wellness another may view as intolerable. When considering the factors
which contribute to overall Wellness we can look to four broad lenses or
perspectives, along with eight dimensions of Wellness. Components that work
together in the definition of a whole state of Wellness.
The modern
re-establishment of Hospice care, where terminally ill patients are made as
comfortable as possible during the dying process, arises from a medieval
practice wherein monastic groups cared for the dying through physical,
spiritual and emotional means. Wellness is what we now call this over-arching
concept.
Even when a person’s body is not functioning as it should
they can still be in a state of Wellness. Through personal belief, faith,
familial and community support, and feeling informed and part of the health
process each person can be “at ease” within their own mind and emotions even
when the physical body is at “dis-ease”.
Their Wellness then becomes a powerful force in both working
to recover from illness or injury – or to transition with grace and calm when
recovery is not physically possible. So too can communities and societies learn
to work together for the ease of all their citizens to become stronger, or
“healthier” than before.
I want to present some information and possible changes
to consider regarding the vital need that every living thing on this planet has
regarding water, and specifically SAFE water.
Certain requirements of daily life
in most western countries that are taken for granted: oxygen, food and water
being three of the most necessary. Most people in First World countries never
consider that water will not be there when they want it. For showers, brushing
teeth, washing clothes, cooking, or removing bodily wastes we expect that with
the turn of a knob a seemingly endless supply of safe, clean water is our right.
But this expectation is a very new privilege in the history of human kind, and
it is still not a given in many parts of the world, nor even in all of the
United States.
For
thousands and thousands of years humans have settled into communities based not
on the view, or defensibility, access to fuel for fires or shelter from the
elements – but on the availability of water. Not that those other factors were
not considerations, but water was needed in order to sustain the life of the
community. Water holes provided a place for animals to gather that could be
killed for meat, clothing and people could be washed, food prepared using
water, domesticated animals could be watered, then crops irrigated and sacred
rituals performed using water. Neanderthals, Roman Legions, Celts, Huns,
Nomads, Masai and Asians – no culture has ever been able to survive or grow
without access to water. Empires have flourished, trade routes established and
wars won and lost on the waterways of the world.
Communities
needed to take into consideration how to manage more complex matters of waste
removal as their populations grew. And with that growth there would be more
competition for safe water with disenfranchised groups perhaps relegated to
area of brackish, unhealthy water.
The
human body is made up of 60% water, organs rely on water to perform vital
functions, flush away toxins and deliver nutrients on an ongoing basis. Three
of our most vital organs are more than half water: the brain and heart (73%
each) and lungs (83%) (Marieb, 2018). Without water the body cannot perform
basic functions such as cell growth, waste removal, oxygenation of the blood,
secretion of vital hormones or maintain a healthy immune system. Factors that
not only put the body at risk of ceasing to function, but cause miscarriages in
women, organ failure in children and epidemics of disease and infection which
can eradicate entire villages in under-developed countries.
While the human body has remarkable capacity to fight off
infection and pathogens when it is in a healthy state, a weakened body lacks
those robust defenses. And when unclean water is all that is available to a
compromised body, then the bacteria and pathogens in the water meet little to
no resistance and can cause catastrophic illness.
Safe water insecurity can also
cascade down through subsequent generations of a society. The mother who is
malnourished and chronically dehydrated typically will not birth a robust
child, that child will experience developmental delays in various aspects (i.e.
social, intellectual, physical) that will hinder his ability to become
self-sufficient or a leader, he may then mature enough to father another child
with a similarly stunted female whose offspring will have additional
challenges. All of which become dependent upon the greater society for support
and their circumstances make it less likely they will experience a full quality
of Wellness.
Water, and any pollutants
or pathogens carried within it, will work its way through a community with
predictive outcomes. Just as non-polluted water helps animals develop into safe
food options, so do plants benefit by maturing into nutritionally important
components of the human diet.
The reverse also holds true that contaminants from water
will alter or stunt the growth of crops and food animals, but those pollutants
often remain in the foodstuffs consumed by people where they can have
catastrophic results for the individual and community.
The scientific Law of Conservation of Mass,
discovered by Antoine Lavoisier in 1785 states “Matter is neither created
nor destroyed in a chemical process” which means there is the same amount of
water on earth today as there was tens of thousands of years ago.
Our planet’s surface is almost 70%
covered by water, or which only 2.5% is “fresh” and not saline. Of that 2.5% we
only have ready access to 1%. Therefore only 0.007% of the earth’s water is
available to sustain 6.8 BILLION people. As we will never have more water on
the planet, doesn’t it make sense to take care with what we do have?
Natural pollutants such as
minerals from surrounding strata accounts for a very small amount of
contaminated water. Humans are responsible for the contamination of the rest.
When faced with a water crisis, humans will revert away from their civilized
veneer Even within the US several major water sources are at risk of drying up
over the next 15 years according to the United States Geological Society
·
Consider short-term options for immediate
need:
o
Government issued water filtration devices
o
Total water ban on all residential
landscaping in high-risk areas – xeriscaping to be the standard
o
High punitive fines for those violating
bans
o
Use of Gray Water for public parks,
flushing toilets, certain industrial applications
o
Re-institute use of cisterns and rain
barrels for all multi-occupancy buildings.
·
Long-term options:
o
Water rationing for business and
residential properties – applying to fresh and not gray water the company
re-uses
o
Building properly engineered septic
systems and leech fields for communities not served by public sewers – this
will protect water tables from contamination
o
All agricultural waste to be disposed of
differently – mandatory composting for any facility with more than 50 animals
being raised for food
o
Phase out use of toxins and chemicals on
farms of more than 5 acres
·
Strengths
o
Would apply to everyone equally regardless
of socioeconomic status. When we think back to the gas shortages in the 1970s –
there was no advantage based on what kind of car you drove or how much you
made. Everyone had to wait in line based only on the numbering of your license
plate.
o
Short-term option relatively cost
effective, tax credit option – reward business and residential properties who
implement run off collection, rerouting of grey water for toilets etc.
o
Finally address a centuries old problem
using newest technology – it is not a surprise that water shortages are going
to be more and more pressing on populations. This is not a problem that arose
overnight and it will take years, or decades, to fully implement.
o
Can be applied to any global location –
safe leach fields, water filters, reduction of animal waste into waterways –
these are things that are applicable to all locations where people live.
·
Challenges
- Property
owner’s sense of entitlement and NIMBY – an overall change will need
strong global commitment and leadership from many places. There will
always be people who feel they should be exempt from any limitations
however, they need to be fined often and with numbers big enough to get
their attention.
- Lobbyists
would need to be addressed – this would require a re-structuring of
politics, something that has needed doing for a long time. Special
interests can no longer be considered over what is best for the larger
whole
- Cost
– price caps should be set by law so that no one manufacturer or retailer
can gouge consumers who purchase their product.
- Inevitable
closing of certain businesses – just as it always has, this type of
global change will be the dying off of some businesses and grown
opportunities others. Such is the way a market economy works.
- Time
for completion and education of populace – again, think in terms of years
not months.
Water
scarcity affects every living thing on our planet – flora and fauna and people.
When clean, drinkable water is not available crops wither and fail, food
animals die without reproducing, human biology is adversely affected and
neither Health nor Wellness can thrive. Water is not just a problem for some
other country, or for people “over there” that we do not interact with – it is
a global issue that will need global cooperation and work to address in order
ensure all living things have equal access to this basic biological necessity.
Thank you for your time
and attention. Feel free to send me any additional questions you may have about
my proposals.
