UUSC Justice Sunday:
Water Rights and
Water Wrongs

A sermon delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Blacksburg, VA), March 15, 2009, by the Reverend Christine Brownlie.

Listen to the rain falling. What a lovely sound on this misty morning! It’s rained all weekend- — again. Is it my imagination? Or is this a real pattern? If so, I wonder why.

I know that not everyone is a fan of rainy weekends. The kids are bored and frustrated because they can’t go out. Adults who want to get that car washed or the garden started are irritated. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way to turn rain off on Friday night and then back on when Sunday night arrives? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could control the rain?

We know that there are people on this planet who would scream for joy if they got the kind of rain that we’re getting. Here in the New River Valley, we take our water supply for granted. We have the rivers to rely on for our water supply, so we don’t fret about the price of water going though the ceiling, and only rarely do we have any water rationing. (In spite of the recent rain, our region has been experiencing a mild drought for the past few years.) We’re told that our water is safe to drink, and while some of us don’t care for the taste of our tap water or worry about how certain chemicals in the water will affect our bodies, at least we’re not in the tight spot that others face over their water supply.

Not yet, anyway. We shouldn’t allow our sense of security to lull us into thinking that we can treat water as if the earth has an endless supply of H₂O. We are kidding ourselves if we think that our lives will never be affected by the problems of pollution, water-borne diseases, or even a shortage of water. There are many factors that put pressure on the world’s water supply: climate change, an increase in population in the developing countries, agricultural and manufacturing practices, and our American tendency to take water for granted.

When we look at the iconic photos of our planet that were taken from space, the first thing you notice is that a large proportion of our Earth is beautiful blue ball that is topped off at both ends with ice caps. How could we possibly have a water shortage?

In fact, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Web site, we don’t have a shortage of water per se. What we lack is enough safe water that can be consumed by people and animals, and can be used for agricultural purposes.

When we look at the Earth’s total water supply, only 3% of the water on the planet is fresh water. Much of this water is contained in ice caps, or in the atmosphere or other places where we can’t easily get at it. This leaves only 1% of the water on Earth that is both suitable and available for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

Unfortunately, this 1% of the earth’s water is not distributed equally over the globe. And as blues singer Billie Holiday notes, “Them that’s got shall have, Them that’s not shall lose.”

Since the time of the children of the Jewish patriarch we call Abraham, to the year 1948, access to clean, safe water was no more than a matter of luck, wealth, and power. Throughout history, wars have been fought over water, and today there is a growing fear that water will be the cause of wars in the not-too-distant future. These wars will be especially bitter, because without water there is no life. It’s just that simple, and it’s very worrisome.

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has taken up the right to clean safe water as one focus for their annual Justice Sunday. At the start of this church year, I chose “ethical eating” as a focus for my justice sermons. There is clearly a connection between the right of all people to safe clean water and the topic of ethical eating.

You might be wondering where this idea of the right to safe water comes from. This claim, along with several other radical statements about the basic rights that belong to all the people of the world, comes from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was published under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The architect of this document was Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of human right in this country. She brought together some of the most highly regarded legal theorists, political thinkers, writers, religious thinkers, and philosophers of that day to serve as consultants to a small working group that created a document that would establish a set of fundamental rights, which every country in the UN was expected to follow.

This revolutionary declaration offers 30 simple articles that declare the fundamental rights due to every person on the planet — regardless of gender, age, cultural or family background, or religious faith. When this document was presented to the General Assembly, Mrs. Roosevelt said that it was her hope that it would become a “Magna Carta” for all of humanity. While most of the rights promised in the “Declaration” have yet to be realized in many countries, this document provide some authority and power to those who are fighting for the most basic of human rights.

Article 25 of the Declaration states:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself [or herself] and his [or her] family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.”

A later statement, issued in 2000 by the United Nations committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, affirms the elemental and basic human right to enough safe, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.

But we all know that while this right exists, the reality is that access to safe water is a mere dream to many people in much of the world. And what is enough? Environmental consultant Rob Arner writes:

These facts made me curious about my own water usage. I discovered that I use about 53 gallons a day — I try to be mindful about water and keep my consumption low. This number includes the water that I use for “domestic use”: washing clothes, dishes, and also cooking. (I use “saved water” from the shower and the kitchen for up to a half of the toilet flushes.) I am probably below average for American usage, but not compared to the rest of the world!

I might use less water if I lived in a place that didn’t have a modern water system. It’s so easy turn on the tap and like magic, water flows into my glass. I know I’m lucky. In many developing countries, women or girls do the work of collecting and transporting water. This means rising early and walking — often for a mile or more — to a creek or stream or a well and then making the trip back home, trying not to spill a drop of that precious water. There is no guarantee that the water that is carried home is safe for the family to use; for example, a well may be contaminated. Streams and rivers are often shared with the local livestock. This means that bringing the water carried home so carefully may cause severe illness or death to a young child or elder. Every year, 2 million children die of dehydration due to disease. Cholera epidemics sweep through whole regions, taking thousand of lives.

Sometimes there isn’t even enough dirty water to go around. The World Bank predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will suffer from lack of clean and safe drinking water. Climate change is shifting rain patterns, so that some areas of the globe are receiving far less water. 31 countries are now facing water scarcity, and 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Water consumption is doubling every 20 years. And yet, at the same time, water sources are rapidly being polluted, depleted, diverted and exploited by corporate interests ranging from industrial agriculture and manufacturing to electricity production and mining. But this pain isn’t shared equally by everyone in a water-deprived community.

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee reports that the current water crisis hits the poorest the hardest. Those who manage to survive may be forced to leave their land and often end up in refugee camps where the sense of despair and helplessness can make life even more difficult. In the words of a UN Development program spokesperson, the burden of limited access to water falls most heavily on the poorest of the world’s people. The statement referred to this situation as “water apartheid.” If those words strike you as extreme consider these facts: about a third of people without access to an improved water source live on less than $1 a day; more than two thirds of people without an improved water source live on less than $2 a day. Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-to-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.

In our own country, we are aware of the threat of a serious water shortage in many states. Let me remind you of the bitter feuding about the right to water these past few summers as the governors of Florida, Alabama and Georgia engaged in a legal chess game over who had the right to the water in the two major water basins that were slowly becoming depleted. Major cities had to ration water, and despite their best efforts, several were just months away from running out of water completely. Atlanta, Raleigh, Durham, and others face continued restrictions this coming summer. North Texas is about to run out of water due — in part — to a rapidly growing population and a determination to have green lawns no matter what. When I lived in Fort Worth, it was very common to see automatic sprinkler systems watering the lawn in the middle of a rainstorm. I had to restrain my impulse to go bang on the front door and try to get the homeowner to realize that the sprinklers were wasting a precious commodity.)

This year, the reduction of the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range is very bad news for Northern California. Lake Mead, which supplies water to Southern California, Arizona, and Northern Mexico, is dwindling. The Great Lakes are also at low levels due to climate change and increasing population in many of the cities that are depend on the lakes for water. Pollution has fouled the water and closed many of the beaches. There are many who see the crisis over water as far more urgent that the concerns over fossil fuels, because there is no substitute for water. Even desalination is of questionable value as a solution to the water crisis. This past January, Scientific American published a short article on this solution that explains the downside of the methods of desalination that rely on fossil fuels: more fossil fuels are used in desalination than simply taking the equivalent amount of fresh water from fresh water bodies. The unnamed author observes that the very proliferation of desalination plants around the world is both a reaction to and one of many contributors to global warming. Marine biologists warn that widespread desalination could take a heavy toll on ocean biodiversity because such facilities essentially vacuum up and inadvertently kill millions of plankton, fish eggs, fish larvae and other microbial organisms that constitute the base layer of the marine food chain. Another concern is that for every gallon of fresh water produced, another gallon of doubly concentrated salt water must be disposed of, further wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems.

Despite these cautions, Florida and foreign countries are using solar and nuclear power in desalination plants to meet their need for clean water. What the long-term consequences will be for the health of the Earth’s water supply is difficult to predict.

I hope that I’ve delivered enough “bad news” to convince you that the right to safe affordable and accessible water is a growing problem and that each of us needs to be aware and active. Our community is fortunate in that our water supply appears to be stable and our water treatment facilities are not on the verge of collapse. But we must remember that we live in a global village. As people who are passionate about justice, we cannot ignore the suffering of our brothers and sisters down the road, across the state line, or across the globe.

There are many opportunities for involvement in projects in which we can make a difference. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is just one of many organizations that is working in communities to assist poor people with water issues. Supporting a project in Africa, South or Central America or the Middle East might be a wonderful way to honor a birthday or acknowledge the birth of a grandchild or to express your gratitude for the water that you use every day. Here are five sites that work with communities in need of water. All have high ratings from Charity Navigator.

oxfamamerica.org
water.org
waterforpeople.org
sunpump.com
aermotorwindmills.com

Please take the time to investigate the organizations that appeal to you, before sending a contribution.

If you would like to be a part of the solution, (no pun intended), you can learn more about your own water footprint by going to H2O Conserve. This Web site has a calculator program that will help you determine your own or our family’s water footprint — as well as suggestions about lowering your water usage that might inspire you to make some changes in your daily habits.

An ancient Greek sage, Thales of Miletus said:

"Water is the first principle of all things.

All things come to be from water,

And all things return to water."

Our concern for justice for all people, and for the health of the web of life demands that we take on the complex and difficult challenges of protecting and providing clean water throughout the world. Let’s examine our own habits and practices to see where we may be wasting this necessary resource. For Water is Life and Life is precious.

Amen.