Just as the spring rains have finally started to fall, the struggle for clean water is everywhere in the news. But unless we change our ways soon, there may not be a drop to drink … at least one that’s clean or free.
Nestlé Seeks to Profit From Oregon Spring Water
As droughts continue to hammer California, the quest for clean water sources has shifted north to Oregon. And this week, a push by Nestlé to capture and bottle local spring water has moved one step closer to reality.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has agreed to transfer water rights to the city of Cascade Locks. If the paperwork filed jointly by the agency and the city is approved by the Oregon Water Resources Department, the city would then be able to sell its spring water to Nestlé for it to bottle and ship off to market.
Nestlé proposes to bottle 100 million gallons of water annually from Oxbow Springs. That’s the amount of water held by about 150 Olympic-size swimming pools. Except in this, case, it’s crystal clear Oregon spring water.
Some environmental and citizen groups are concerned that the move by Nestlé would transform water from a public resource into a private commodity, available only to those who can afford it. Already petitions are circulating and a protest is planned for April 16th in Portland, Oregon.
Transporting Clean Water From Alaska to California
You know the drought in California has reached truly epic proportions when ideas once ridiculed take on an air of “why didn’t we think of that sooner?”
Entrepreneurs are moving forward with plans to ship massive amounts of water from Southeast Alaska to parched customers in California. The idea was originally proposed decades ago by Gov. Wally Hickel (who took the brunt of the ridicule).
The Governor had suggested running a pipeline to the sunny state down south. The new investors, though, have not yet decided on how they will transport the vast amounts of water. It could be shipped in large, flexible bags or cargo shipping containers. But however it goes, it’s likely to happen soon.
“The shipment of bulk water from Sitka will become reality this summer,” Alaska Bulk Water CEO Terry Trapp said in an email to Alaska Dispatch News. “Our company has obtained contracts for the shipment of bulk water.”
Radiation Reaches Water off North American Coast
It’s not just water that is being transported over vast distances. Radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor has been detected in Canada. The radiation’s journey began in 2011 when three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors melted down after being hit by a tsunami.
The Cesium radiation in the sample collected in February off the coast of British Columbia was well below levels that might be dangerous to humans. But the fact that the radiation could migrate so far across a vast oceans is a stark reminder of the fragility of our clean water supplies.
In the Western world, many of us take for granted that when we turn on the tap, clean water will flow without fail.
But the convenience of modern living has cut us off from the reality of the many threats to our water supplies. From household pollution like cleaners and microbeads to industrial and oil spills. And now companies like Nestlé buying up public sources of water for profit.
Clean Water is a Public Resource and Human Right
All life depends upon water. So it’s difficult to imagine that we would continue to treat it with such contempt. Or let it be locked away in the vault of some private corporation, making it available only to those who can afford to pay.
Like air, though, water is a resource. The United Nations even went so far in 2010 to proclaim that water is a basic human right.
Nestlé’s Chairman and former CEO Peter Brabeck, however, may have a different idea in mind for free-flowing water like that in Oxbow Springs. He suggested in 2013 that declaring water a right is “extreme.” The company has since backtracked on that stance.
As water continues to come under assault, often through our hands, it might be useful to remember a quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune, a book about a desert planet, where every last drop of water is precious: “A man’s flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe.”
And if that isn’t inducement enough to fight for clean water for everyone on the planet, those famous lines by Coleridge might give a clue as to what our world will be like if we continue to neglect our water supplies.
Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.~ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
