Water works

I have always been surprised by how many people are willing to pay for bottled water when perfectly drinkable water, certified by local inspectors, is available from their own home faucets (which of course they already pay for as a public utility). Somehow, a very good selling job has been done by the bottled water industry to persuade everyone that regular tap water is not as safe, healthy, or good tasting as the kind you get in a plastic bottle. 

You probably know that a large percentage of you and me is water, plus the whole surface of the Earth. Too bad the rest of the solar system isn’t as lucky. And all it takes is a certain combination of two of the most abundant elements in the universe – hydrogen and oxygen.

The bottling industry does harm in other ways. Consider the wastefulness of energy involved in the manufacture, transportation, and disposal (even the recycling) of millions of these containers. I’m convinced that if ordinary AIR could be packaged and sold, and cleverly marketed, there would be no shortage of customers.

But it must be because water is so much a part of us, and so essential to us, that we are attracted to it in so many ways. I am thinking particularly of landscapes and waterfalls. Great falls like Niagara charm and thrill millions of visitors. What is it about falling water that entrances us? I can only suggest that the answer may involve our perception of constant dynamic motion. Waterfalls don’t turn off at night. You can hear and feel the power of Nature at her grandest.

Unfortunately for world peace and harmony, water as a resource is not equally or evenly distributed, and even where it’s readily available, it may not be readily drinkable, or even usable for other purposes, because of various impurities it may contain. Some countries depend on other countries for at least part of their water supply. The Danube River flows through, or alongside, 10 different countries – and you can guess how many different wars and disputes this has provoked. But it also forms the border between certain countries. I have travelled the last part of its course – from Budapest to the Black Sea – and one section which particularly impressed me was where it forms the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Visiting both sides, I was amazed to find not only two different countries, but two languages, and two alphabets! (Romanian is a Latin-derived language, like French and Spanish, with the familiar “Roman” alphabet. Bulgarian has its origins in Greek, and uses the “Cyrillic” alphabet.) That’s what a little water can do.

One country with its own very special water problems is the State of Israel. Because of hostile or unreliable neighbors, which might otherwise be a primary water source, the Israelis have been forced to develop other sources, which may involve purification of polluted water, desalination of sea water, and pipes and tunnels for redistributing the supply. Thus, the small settlement of Eilat at the southern tip of the country, on the Red Sea, with the Negev Desert between it and the more populated areas, receives water from what is now the reservoir known as the Sea of Galilee at the northern end.

But of course, the age-old importance of wells and waterholes in that region is now well known, being referred to in numerous Old and New Testament passages. Water was a vital necessity, long before it was miraculously turned into wine.

Much closer to home, Southern California has attracted large numbers of settlers, mainly because of its year-round climatic advantages. But in terms of available water, it is mostly a desert. Not until an engineer named Mulholland built a system involving 264 tunnels to bring water from 233 miles away (inaugurated in 1913) was Los Angeles able to grow into the largest city in California.

But, coming back to ourselves – we not only largely consist of water, but we also excrete it in various forms. Winston Churchill, upon becoming Britain’s Prime Minister in 1940, said that, besides blood and toil he had nothing to offer but “tears, and sweat.” People didn’t take that literally – but the Romans did – and in many Roman tombs have been found “lachrymal” containers which originally held the tears of mourners. Nowadays tears are as likely, or unlikely, to be shed by a whole country as by any specific person – a phenomenon observed in at least one celebrated song, 

“Don’t cry for me, Argentina.”