Relationships of convenience

In Australia tap water is generally safe and seemingly abundant. This convenience comes with a small price: the impact on our attitudes to water. Although identifying our own biases is difficult, I've tried to expose a few of my underlying assumptions. To help, I looked at my reactions to different drinking water supplies. Welcome to my mini-diary of drinking water baggage!

The Bosque in the 'Burbs

What draws so many people to the Rio Grande Nature Center (RGNC)? To find out, I spoke with Karen Herzenberg, RGNC's Instructional co-ordinator and Interpretive Naturalist. In this excerpt she describes two unintentional interpretive features at RGNC. Sorry about the poor audio quality.

Albuquerque's RGNC  attracts an impressive number of visitors; 130,000 per year. A team of 170 volunteers commit to at least 24 hours of training before running a stack of activities, walks and talks. Every year 12,000 children attend a class at the center. It's not just locals taking advantage of a natural area so close to the city. Herzenberg tells me that visitors from “all over” come to see the waterbirds, “We're know internationally as a destination for birdwatchers... [who come for] specific birds you might only see in this area.”

 In spite of it's high public value, I'm surprised that the cottonwood forest, or bosque, at RGNC still exists. Levees and irrigation ditches have dramatically reduced flow throughout the Rio Grande. The last flood was in 1941. Without floods, cottonwoods can't germinate and grow. Today, the aging stands of trees are slowly dying off. Reforestation is hampered by low water levels. Consequently, the bosque and wetland areas at RGNC contain some of the few remnants of the endemic ecosystems.

Two California River Stories

Our guest blogger is Kat Taylor, a part-time Intern with the Water Ethics Network, who has a background in indigenous land and water issues in NW Australia. She served as “Water Facilitator” for the Kimberly Land Council, an Aboriginal Corporation dedicated to “Getting back country, looking after country, and getting control of our future.” Kim is currently spending a year traveling around the United States, and along the way, she will be writing about the land and water issues. She sends us this report from Northern California:

The streams of Northern California hide stories. My first impression only took in their charm. This foreign traveler was tempted to assume their character is unchanging. But then, I started to talk to some locals people and learned two contrasting stories:

The first story was about the dams on the Feather River. The network of dams allows sections of river to be turned “on” and “off”. This ability was used in a novel in-situ study of the river bed; a
section of the river was temporarily emptied so a research scientist could examine the gravel. What a lucky researcher! Looking at the river, it seemed like strange magic. Imagine having the power to turn off the water like a giant's tap.

Over beers on a Chico front porch, I heard a contrasting tale. A local Tribe, the Winnemem Wintu, are in an ongoing struggle with the Forest Service. Unlike the researcher, they didn’t ask for the river to stop flowing. They applied for a section of the McCloud river to be temporarily closed to recreational boat traffic. Restricting boat access makes it much safer for the participants of Bałas Chonas (Coming of Age Ceremony). During Balas Chonas, the girls swim across the river. The Winnemem Wintu, who are not a “Federally recognized” tribe, have applied for river closure several times with varying levels of success. In 2006 the Forest Service closure was not granted and drunken boaters disturbed the ceremony. Full closure was granted
in 2010 and the ceremony took place in peace. In 2011 closure was not granted, so the ceremony was postponed to 2012. The Winnemem Wintu will campaign for full closure again this year.

These two stories say a lot about what is valued. Scientific understanding and its contribution towards healthier waterways is recognized as important. We value it so highly we will drastically alter the river flow itself, as contradictory as that sounds. The importance of maintaining cultural river health, on the other hand, does not have the same recognition. When we involve rivers in the most sacred aspects of our lives, we are drawn closer to Nature (and to each other). When cultural and spiritual values are recognized as having importance and legitimacy, perhaps we will see a shift in our relationship to water.

Water Ethics News

Launch of the Water Ethics Website

Our new central cyber-hub for the Water Ethics Network is up and running at http://waterethics.org. Visit the site to connect to other Network members and to stay up to date on water ethics happenings worldwide.

> In the Community page you can post a brief profile and include the projects and organizations in which you are involved (as long as they’re somehow related to water ethics!).

> Click on the “Get Involved” tab to link to our social media sites: our Facebook page, Linked-in group, and Twitter (@H2OEthics).

> There is a separate page for the e-Newsletter where you can see past issues, subscribe for email delivery, and (please take note!) submit news and information for the next issue.

> The other tab we would urge you to click is labeled “Donate to the Network.” Please help us keep this network going by contributing any amount. Not only will this help us immediately; it will also help us demonstrate to potential sponsors that our services are valued. Thank you!

- Katey Blumenthal, Water Ethics

Intern and Webmaster

The Other "WTO" - World Toilet Organization

November 19 is World Toilet Day organized by the World Toilet Organization, whose mission is “Improving sanitation conditions for people globally through powerful advocacy, inventive technology, education and building marketplace opportunities locally.” Access to basic sanitation is included in the UN-recognized “Human Right to Water and Sanitation” but the “sanitation” part is often omitted in both thought and action. Sanitation and water are inextricably inter-twined: water is used for sanitation, and the way sanitation is done, or not done, has a big effect on water quality. Visit the World Toilet Day website for more information about how the day is being observed around the world, or download the World Toilet Day Toolkit (3MB).

Adopt a Water Ethic!

Feeling frustrated that the world hasn't adopted the water ethic you know we need for a sustainable future? Consider developing your own water ethic and adopting it as your own personal code. The process of writing it down will be rewarding, as well as humbling. There's a lot to consider. Here are two water ethics to get you started:

> Mike Barerra's Water Ethic. A Baptist minister living along the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas, Mike is passionate about safeguarding the future of the river. He serves as chairman of the Rio Grande Regional Advisory Council which networks among existing groups to develop a basin-wide river ethic. He keeps a running list of water ethics principles; click here for the current version.

> Maude Barlow's Water Ethic. In her 2001 book, Blue Gold, writer and activist Maude Barlow suggests Ten Principles for protecting water. Click here for the complete list.

Ecumenical Water Network Develops New Strategy

The World Council of Churches launched the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) in 2006 with a mandate to report back to the Council’s 2013 World Assembly to be held in Busan, Korea. That time is getting closer and the Ecumenical Water Network has just developed a new action plan so they will have something interesting to report. For details of their current activities and future plans, see the EWN website. What kind of work does EWN do? Sometimes it gets political. In the words of Dr. Rommel F. Linatoc, a representative of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, political action has be part of the mix: “For us, water is an issue of human rights and dignity. Once that dignity and human right is eradicated from each individual then it become a political issue that some of our churches don’t want to be involved. However, I think water is a political matter that needs to be addressed politically.” (Click here for more…)

What's the Value of Ecosystem Services?

Everyone agrees that ecosystems provide valuable services, but just how valuable are they? Eric Landen (Landen Consulting) has put together a briefing note about valuing the coral reef and mangrove ecosystems in Belize. When a ship ran aground and damaged a 6,000 square meter swath of coral, the Belize Supreme Court awarded damages equivalent to US$5,000 per square meter. It helped that the country had recently completed an economic valuation of the reef’s ecosystem services, and this served as one basis for awarding compensation to the government. Click here to view/download the one-page briefing document.

Measuring Water (and ethics?) with Aqua Gauge

Aqua Gauge is a flexible Excel-based tool that allows investors to scorecard a company's water management activities against detailed definitions of leading practice. It has been developed by Ceres, a non-profit organization working with investors to nudge major corporations towards environmental sustainability. Aqua gauge measures not only the water footprint, but also includes dimensions of governance and management, stakeholder engagement and disclosure. The tool can be used for assessing corporate water risk management and also gives companies a resource to inform and strengthen their water management strategies. For details, click here.

Mother Earth Water Walk

In a demonstration of respect for the sacred Great Lakes, a group of Native American grandmothers walked around parts of the lakes between 2002 and 2009. This year they invited other Native Americans to join them from the far North, the Pacific West, the Atlantic East, and the South. They congregated in June in the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation of Northern Wisconsin. For a news account of the Water Walk, click here. The spirit of the Water Walkers is effectively communicated in a video interview with First Nations Grandmother, Josephine Mandamin which is in three segments, each 5 to 10 minutes: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. For more about the 2011 Water Walk as well as the earlier walks, visit www.motherearthwaterwalk.com and take some time to explore this rich website.

The Art of Water

Jeff Rich is a photographer with a keen eye for watershed, rivers, and people. His "Survey of the French Broad River Basin" in North Carolina documents a once horribly polluted river which was cleaned up following the Clean Water Act, but now once again is becoming more polluted. Click here for a narrated short video of the images.

School children living the Europe's Danube Basin were invited to submit art work depicting something about the river. The works of art can be seen here.

Reports and Articles

"History, Ethics, and Religious Values: Contributions to Water and Food Security" was a side session at World Water Week in Stockholm this past August, organized by Global Water System Project (GWSP), the Botin Foundation Water Observatory, and UNESCO. The presentations can be viewed or downloaded here (link to World Water Week site). [Thanks to Janos Bogardi for this link.]

An article about the Jordan River appears in the current issue of Orion Magazine, under the title of "Holy Water: A Precious Commodity in a Region of Conflict." Click here to view the article. [Thanks for Jeremy Schmidt for suggesting this.]

"Renewing a Naxi environmental ethic in Lijiang, China: an approach for water management," by Elizabeth Voeller appears in the September 2011 issue of the journal, Lakes & Reservoirs: Research & Management. Click here for the article. [The author writes that she is not currently involved in water ethics reseach but hopes to return to this topic eventually.]

Upcoming Water Conferences

Water, Energy and Food Nexus. The Bonn "Nexus Conference" is going on now (16-18 Nov.) serving as preparation for Rio+20 (see below). The conference website includes a wealth of background papers and major presentations, but the topic of ethics barely appears. (There is one mention in the paper on Corporate Water Stewardship, and perhaps no mentions anywhere else.) If you can find "ethics" in the conference, please let us know!

The 6th World Water Forum (WWF-6) will be held in Marseille, France from 12-17 March 2012. Water ethics will be a theme within a session on an “Ethical and Cultural Initiative for Water” being organized by the Grassroots and Citizenship Process Commission of the Forum Secretariat. In addition to participating in this theme, the Water Ethics Network is also working with Indigenous Peoples' groups to help bring stronger representation of indigenous voices to the Water Forum. To learn more about the planning, or to offer help or suggestions, contact David Groenfeldt, Water Ethics Network Coordinator at: network@waterculture.org.

Rio+20. The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil from 20-22 June 2012. Water will be an important part of the agenda, along with ethics. We are looking for opportunities to bring ethics into the water discussions at the Conference. If you have any ideas, or would like to be involved in some way, please contact David Groenfeldt at network@waterculture.org

Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace. ‘Culture is the root of the tree of sustainable development,’ observed the late Te Tika Mataiapo (Cook Islands). The Indigenous World Forum, planned for late 2012 or early 2013, will give voice to the Indigenous perspective of guardianship of all sources of water. In this view our relationship to water is expressed as a sacred responsibility through the practice of cultural traditions. The Forum will seek to establish mechanisms for active and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples in all water policy decisions. Click here for more details about the Forum concept.

Are You Working on Water Ethics Issues?

Please share your news with interested colleagues. Submit a brief description to network@waterculture.org. Submit before 12 December for the next Newsletter to be issued on 15 December.

Water Ethics Newsletter - October 2011

Water Ethics News 





Follow Us on Twitter!  (and on other social media...)

The Network has a new Twitter account (@H2OWater) as well as a Facebook page on Water Ethics, and Linked-In group (Water Ethics Network).  Please "follow" us on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook, and simply express yourself on Linked-In!  We will also be launching a new water ethics website which you are welcome to visit (www.waterethics.org), though the site is still under development. The next newsletter (November) will give a detailed description of the website's features, which we expect will be up and running by then.  

Social media will be a major part of the Network's strategy, and is made possible through the volunteer work of our two Interns, Katey Blumenthal and Nadia Ahmad.  Katey joined the Network as it was just getting started this past August.  She has done research in Nepal for her MA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia, and now finds time to help the Network while taking graduate classes and deciding on a PhD topic.  Katey manages the Facebook page and has now taken on the added job of website development.  Nadia joined the Network in response to the announcement in last month's Newsletter.  After practicing law in Florida for the past few years, she is now pursuing her LLM at the University of Denver, in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy.  Nadia manages the Twitter account. In addition to these tech-support roles, both Katey and Nadia will serve as "roving ambassadors" for water ethics, visiting blogs and other media sties dealing with water issues, making comments from an ethics perspective, and sharing intersting bits of information through tweets and postings.  Please join them in offering your own abassadorial services to the Network through actively engaging in on-line discussions about water ethics.  We'll see you in cyberspace!

Art Exhibit on the Value of Water 

The Value of Water: Sustaining a Green Planet is an art exhibit at The Cathedral of St John the Divine, in New York, through March 25, 2012.  The website offers samples of the art and info about the artists.  For an interesting overview of the show, see the Ecocentric blog post. 

Indicators and Standards for Water Stewardship

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has released guidance for companies to begin formally measuring and reporting their impact & dependence on ecosystem services. The report (called “Approach for Reporting on Ecosystem Services”) paves the way for ecosystem services metrics to be included as part of the standard package of measures used to report on an organization’s sustainability performance.  For details, click here for the blog post by WEN Advisor, Eric Landen, explaining what the GRI is and why this report could be important.  The full report, from the GRI website (www.globalreporting.org), can be downloaded here (6.7MB)

The Alliance for Water Stewardship, established in 2010, aims to establish a voluntary certification program for water managers and users based on (1) international standards developed through a multi-stakeholder process (2) verification to determine whether these standards have been met, (3) a global label that allows businesses to demonstrate compliance, and (4) Training and education on water stewardship.  Alliance partners include The Nature Conservancy, Water Stewardship Australia, Pacific Institute, WWF, Water Witness International, Water Environment Federation, European Water Partnership, IWMI, The CEO Water Mandate, and the Carbon Disclosure Project. The program is divided regionally into Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America (Asia is not yet represented).  For details, see www.allianceforwaterstewardship.org.  For their latest (July/Aug) newsletter, click here.

Tribute to David Getches

David Getches, who passed away in July 2011, was professor of law at the University of Colorado, and a strong advocate for indigenous water rights in the American West and internationally.  His work exemplified the connections of water rights with cultural rights.  Last month the National Congress of American Indians posthumously awarded him their Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his many services.  Click here for the announcement.

Local Water Ethics

The EU's Committee of the Region has called for a multi-level, cross-border approach to the management of river basins and proposes targets for water efficiency and extending the Covenant of Mayors to include sustainable water use. The Committee proposes setting targets for 2020 similar to those on energy consumption: a 20% increase in water-saving in all sectors; a 20% increase in the number of water courses being re-naturalised to reduce flood risk and a 20% increase in the volume of water re-used and/or recycled in farming and industry. Click here for the report of a survey about “The role of regional and local authorities in promoting a sustainable water policy."  (Source:  www.emwis.net).

Conference Reports

"Water in the Green Economy in Practice: Towards Rio+20" was the title of a UN-Water conference held in Zaragoza, Spain from 3-5 October, 2011.  There is a rich set of papers available on the conference website.  Presentations from many of the speakers can be downloaded here.  There is also a series of  “Issues Information Briefs” covering water and (a) agriculture, (b) cities, (c) industry) and (d) ecosystems.   Of direct relevance to water ethics is the paper by Rafael Romero et al. “Water Planning in the Transition to a Green Economy.”

“Building a Global Awareness and Education Campaign about Water” was the theme of an International Water Forum at the UN Headquarters in New York, Sept 16, 2011.  More than 500 people attended the event aimed at enlisting support and partnerships from US-based organizations working on water. For details and links to presentations, see the Water Matters blog from the Columbia University Water Center.

Books, Reports, and Articles

"Environmental Ethics in River Water Management" by Ravichandran Moorthy and Ganesan Jeyabala, American Journal of Environmental Sciences (7)4:370-376; [Click here to go to the journal site, then click on “View Fulltext PDF” in the left margin].

"The Fight to Save the Gila River" by Sandra Postel, appears in the National Geographic's Daily News Blog for Sept 27.  The article describes efforts by local conservation groups to make the case for river conservation by appealing to cultural values.  The immediate threat is a dam to impound water on the New Mexico side of the state border with Arizona.  This is an interesting case of conservation values (the dam would be the first on this still free-flowing river) at odds with land developers.

Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most, by Robert Sandford and Merrell-Ann Phare, is a new book just released on October 17. From the publisher's description: "This ground-breaking and approachable work, by two of Canada’s most authoritative experts on water issues, redefines our relationship with fresh water and outlines the steps we as a society will have to take if we wish to ensure the sustainability of our water supply for future generations."  We will include a review of this book in the next (November) newsletter.

Featured Programs

Earth Ethics Institute (EEI) was established in 1993 at Miami Dade College in Florida, USA to foster a new literacy about the Earth’s natural systems.  These understandings serve as a foundation for sustainable environmental practice.  The Institute offers hands-on service learning opportunities for students and sponsors workshops and programs about sustainable living and business practices.  This month the Institute is hosting a workshop featuring Cynthia Barnett, an advisor to the Water Ethics Network and author of Blue Revolution: Unmaking Americas Water Crisis, and Mirabel Balbin, Program Manager for the Miami-Dade County Office of Sustainability responsible for green economy initiatives and water resources.  For more information, contact the Director, Colleen Ahern-Hettich, cahemhe@mdc.edu.

  

NEW Wilderness Alliance.  NorthEast Wisconsin (NEW) Wilderness Alliance is an emerging initiative to restore the water ecosystems of the Fox River Basin and the region surrounding the city of Green Bay.  Making the beaches of Green Bay swimmable and fishable serves as the overall goal of the Alliance.  But while the central focus is water, the Alliance is taking a broad approach and addressing six themes: Green Infrastructure, Ecological Planning and Design, Restoring the Health of Local Nature, Leave no Child Inside, Cultural/Artistic Perspective, and Climate Change.  Members of the Alliance will include local governments, businesses, Indian tribes, civic and enviornmental organizaitons, and local schools and colleges.  Click here for a background paper. Click here for a background paper.  For further info, contact Paul Linzmeyer at isointernationalllc@gmail.com.

Are You Working on Water Ethics Issues?

Please share your news with interested colleagues. Submit a brief description to network@waterculture.org. Submit before 12 November for the next Newsletter to be issued on 15 November.