Respecting Water

by Ella Kirk

Water is a unique substance. It's smooth, and slides over our hands, yet can wear away stone and is responsible for many of our landforms. Its solid form is less dense than its liquid form, a great fortune for living things, because if this wasn't true, our oceans would have been frozen solid long ago. Water possesses the property of cohesion as well as adhesion, allowing its molecules to bond to each other through hydrogen bonds and also attract to molecules of different substances, which accounts for capillary action, the force responsible for drawing water out of the roots of plants and into the stems and leaves.

This miracle substance is also one of the best solutes. Almost anything can dissolve in it, allowing particles to be transported quite easily, and often undetectably. This is a curse and a blessing for our modern world.

As easily as water can be contaminated, if you have healthy streams, it can also be cleansed by an area often known as the “kidneys” of a river system: wetlands. These areas are usually rich with reeds and other aquatic plants and teeming with wildlife. Besides, being a great habitat for animals and plants, wetlands are also very effective water filters.

Aside from the miraculous chemical properties and the wonders of its wetlands, water also has a humongous effect on human culture. Most of the biggest cities and oldest establishments were settled near a source of water. Water, and more particularly its flood patterns, made ancient Egypt possible. Water systems, especially large rivers and oceans, unite cultures and made (and still make) transport and trade possible.

H2O, this thirst quencher, makes all life as we know it possible. Water is life, plain and simple. Realizing this, it's astounding and horrific that we don't treat water with more respect. We waste it, we pollute, we dam the systems that bear it, we take it for granted, because we don't realize how lucky we are sometimes.

The other day, my mom told me about how in a village in Nepal, the women walk 3 miles each way, twice a day to bring water from a mountain-top to their homes. On the way up to Albuquerque, we drive by a water park; crystal-clear water sloshes down the brightly-colored slides into pools below. I wonder how many miles the women from Nepal would have to walk to bring that much water home.

It seems sometimes we build our water parks, and our reservoirs, and our glowing lawns with blindfolds on. If we took them off, we would see a desert, where trees bow their heads and pray for rain and the sun bakes down on us. We live in the desert, it's a hard fact for us to ignore, and one that makes it even more crucial to respect water. And we forget, by some small lapse of logic, that being in the desert means we have to conserve more not take more. But it's time for us to remember. It's time for human-kind to rethink their relationship to water.

780 million people world-wide lack access to clean water. We don't know how soon any number of us may join their ranks. If we keep diverting rivers whenever a surge of money comes our way, keep slurping up more and more water from or aquifers, causing the water table to drop so low, wells we dug could hardly reach it, keep manicuring luscious green lawns in New Mexico's June sun, we can not honestly look with unmarred positivity towards our water future. As climate change becomes increasingly real and urgent and our population continues to grow exponentially to an unknown ceiling which means greater water needs, we shouldn't clamber over each other to build the last water park or last lawn. I believe it is time for respect.

I am growing up on the Gila River. Every day I can, I go and sit and watch the cool water as it passes over the rocks in its path. Occasionally I glimpse a beaver along the shore, a deer amongst the willows, a heron wading through the shallows. The water touches all around it with it's gentle hand of life and gives flowers to the wilting shoots, a drink to the thirsty animals, a place where kids and their families can bask in the sun or splash in the shallows. Water grows our food, shapes our land, washes our hair and our clothes, and of course gives itself, pure cold and clean if we're lucky. The fate of water is entwined with our own. It is time we started realizing that.

One of my favorite water -related quotes is by Luna Leopold who says: “Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” To me, this encompasses the whole issue of respect. Water is a critical issue, and one that lies at the turning point of our fate. Water is like a report card, it lets us know when an ecosystem is unhealthy.

There is nothing more affected by the damaging practices of industry than water. Water is constantly being recycled, yet its memory can prove infinite. If we poison the water,we poison the fish, the trees, the animals, the plants, the flowers, our communities, the crops, the economy,and ourselves.

But we have a chance. It is said water flows uphill to money, but we must also understand that disrespected water flows downhill to an uncertain future. Water is the blood of the earth, the messenger and I believe it is past time that we stop putting on our blindfolds and gulping down a glass. It's not time to take more water, further compromising future generations. No, it's time more respect. Respect is a two way street. Respect the water, and our flowers will flourish. Respect the water and we are respecting future generations of all species. Respecting water means respecting life.