water
When the four of us went on a safari in South Africa in 2015 there was a small moment that has stayed with me all these years.
(As opposed to another moment that was much more … unexpected.)
One day we were at a wildlife rescue center and as our guide was walking with us, he stopped to feed a leopard who had come into the center's care and could not be released back into the wild. The guide had a metal bowl in which he had placed some raw meat, and he pulled the individual chunks out by hand and tossed them through the fence to the waiting leopard.
Without pausing in his conversation with us, the guide walked to a nearby faucet and poured a small amount of water (maybe .25 - .5 cup) into the bowl. He then set the bowl on a flat surface and carefully washed the blood off his hands without spilling a drop. Once his hands were rinsed off, he walked to a nearby tree and carefully poured the water over the roots.
Our guide didn't comment on his water conservation and I wonder how many people noticed and registered what he did. The country was in a drought at the time and there were signs at our lodge asking guests to be very careful with water usage.
I've thought about this moment many times over the years, easily at least once a month. I have lived in Virginia my whole life and have mostly experienced an abundance of annual precipitation. Only once can I recall a time when our annual rainfall was much lower and our area had to go into water conservation.
And I think about the billions of people around the world who live without enough water on a daily basis. Who don't have washing machines or dishwashers or yard sprinklers or swimming pools. Who have to consider every drop of water as they go about their days. Many of whom have to walk to collect water from another place, then lug those buckets and jugs back to their homes.
Due to rapid climate changes, my local area has received less precipitation than usual in the past couple of years. Things here are not dire, not like, say, parts of Europe that saw rivers dry up last summer, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.
I don't have a tidy end to this post. No funny joke or comment. Just a reminder for us all to consider our access to clean water and how much we use.
What is the water situation where you live?
I grew in Northern California, in the late 70s and 80s. Water conservation has always been part of my life--watering only on alternate days, people getting tickets for watering when they shouldn't. To this day, if I see someone watering with a sprinkler in the late afternoon, I shake my head--why are you wasting water?!
At our home in the Pacific Northwest, we bought rain barrels, , watered in the evening after the sun had started its slow summer descent, and removed the majority of our front lawn, replacing it with water retaining bark, vegetables, herbs, and flowers (a word to the wise: chives, oregano, and fennel self-seed like you wouldn't believe...but they make for a nice fragrance if you have to mow!).
Living in Denmark, there is no hydroelectric power (it's too flat), we watch our use on an app, especially in winter when rates REALLY go high (average kwh price in Seattle was .11. In Copenhagen in December, it starts around .40kwh and can go up to $1)--there's a different relationship with water here in general (starting with no rails to keep the public from falling into the sea).
As we eye our next move, I look at climate change maps and try and outguess humanity's impact.
What a vivid demonstration of such a vital issue that many of us never think about in our 1st world homes.
Personally handling raw meat just gives me the icks and I really NEED to throroughly wash up. This really brought it home for me how fortunate we are. Thank you.
When we thought about moving to Portugal, the water situation was a big part of the location. Lisbon was the absolute furthest south we would consider. I would have loved to have ended up further north where it is less in danger of running out of water, but unfortunately the fall and winter was simply too raw for us. We would have spent the entire two seasons inside :-(