A River Somewhere

by Leigh K Cunningham
in Water is Oil
30 Jan 2010 | 24 Comments

The Citarum river near Jakarta in Indonesia, has the dubious honor of being the world's most polluted river. It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and the natural beauty of the area left visitors spellbound. Villagers collected water for their homes, and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels. Today, the Citarum is choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and the cast-off from hundreds of factories.

The refuse now covers the river like a carpet, and fishermen no longer scour the river for fish, but forage for rubbish they can salvage and trade—plastic bottles, cans, timber, anything. If they are lucky, they'll earn five dollars a week from their scavenge, but risk disease and death.

Apart from chemicals from factories, all kinds of human waste ends up in the river. There are no rubbish collection services or sewerage systems or treatment plants here. Everything goes into the river, and the filthy water is sucked into the rice paddies, while families risk their health by collecting it for drinking, cooking and washing.

The Citarum is just one example of the shocking abuse mankind has inflicted on our freshwater lakes and rivers, and there are examples anywhere you care to look, even in our westernized backyards.

We might have thought that after Erin Brockovich, factory pollution of water supplies would be a thing of the past, but not so. Dupont settled a law suit, without admitting responsibility, for polluting the Ohio river with chemicals that stay in the environment for up to two thousand years, and accumulate in the tissue of living things and beings, causing developmental and immunological problems.

But it is not just the chemical factories that are actively reducing our water supplies. We waste a lot of it with a mindset that water is free and freely available. Americans are the world's biggest consumers of water and water is now an emerging crisis in the USA.

Nature is also playing a role with more and more countries being declared arid. There are already 80 countries with serious water shortages and only 3% of the Earth's surface is freshwater. With six billion inhabitants, and as demand for water hits the limits of a finite supply, potential conflicts are brewing between nations that share freshwater reserves. More than 50 countries on five continents will be caught up in water disputes unless they can formalize agreements on how to share reservoirs, rivers and underground water aquifers.

Water is the new oil. No one will care about gold, resources or commodoties because you can't stay alive drinking them. The nation that best protects its freshwater lakes and rivers will be the wealthiest, because well, they're alive for starters. And just as wars have started over oil, so we shall see a future where nations will fight for water.

Regards
Leigh 

                  

 

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Comments (24)

"water is the new oil" - yes, I wrote a blog post about this when we were in a D4 drought here in WNC. Good article.

9 Feb 2010, Kathryn Magendie, http://twitter.com/katmagendie

Nice article about a not-so-nice story.

9 Feb 2010, Todd, http://twitter.com/CriticalTodd

And, in fact the carpet is so thick its density covers movement, growth and proliferation of life. How very very sad we do not take control.

9 Feb 2010, Michele Blueston, http://twitter.com/MicheleBlueston

Sad - I'm afraid I'll see the same in Kibera, Kenya next week.

9 Feb 2010, Chuck Blakeman, http://twitter.com/ChuckBlakeman

Kevin, thanks for the story/link/photo of Cleveland's Cuyahoga River. Interesting that the fire on the river was instrumental in raising awareness of environmental issues and became a rallying point for the passage of the Clean Water Act in the USA.

7 Feb 2010, Leigh K Cunningham, www.leighkcunningham.com

But has the Citarum caught fire?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/cuyahoga-catches-fire.php

7 Feb 2010, Kevin Gamin, http://twitter.com/kevingamin

Regards to you, human kind is fool I will read more of your papers blog.

7 Feb 2010, Gilles Grisard, http://twitter.com/GillesmGrisard

That is really sad. I'm working on a river project in Texas. Thanks for the motivation. We really need to thwart abuse somehow.

7 Feb 2010, Mike Gras, http://twitter.com/MikeGras

When we were in Viet Nam, it was great to see the care shown by local fishermen and tour operators in keeping the waters of Halong Bay in pristine condition.

5 Feb 2010, Leigh K Cunningham

Interesting topic; I've nearly always aware of the vast amounts of water I waste daily here in the U.S. but it seems much too difficult to do much about it other than to use conservation-oriented faucets and to limit the time I spend in the shower. I'm already somewhat obsessive about turning off the faucet when I'm scrubbing dishes or brushing my teeth or shaving or whatnot...

3 Feb 2010, Harold, http://somethingthathappened.com

Article in today's Sydney Morning Herald about a proposed new coalmine that threatens the ''hanging swamps'' in the Dharawal State Conservation Area. The 'swamps' filter pure water into the Georges River.

Mine owner, BHP Billiton, admits the mines are likely to cause cracks in the bedrock which will drain the swamps. Aboriginal rock art above the mine site is also at risk.

30 Jan 2010, Leigh K Cunningham, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mining-threat-to-swamps-and-rock-art-20100129-n48w.html

I am going to post as anonymous because I am one of those people who uses 150 gallons of water a day. Shame on me. I am reforming though, I promise.

Cheers

Darth Vader

29 Jan 2010, Anonymous

I have to admit we're really spoiled with ample water in Singapore. It rains a lot so the reservoirs are always full, and we don't need to water lawn.

So when I go to Brisbane to visit my mother, her shower alarm causes me a lot of stress. It beeps after each minute and then after three minutes it goes insane so even if you still have shampoo in your hair, you get out anyway to stop the noise! Plus everyone knows how long you've been in there and you're condemned for it.

29 Jan 2010, Leigh K Cunningham, www.leighkcunningham.com

You've probably seen the CBS report "America's Dwindling Water Supply". It says that by 9am, after showering, using the bathroom, brushing teeth and having a cup of coffee, each American has typically used more than 30 gallons of water. After doing the dishes, running the washing machine and watering the lawn we've used up to 150 gallons of water by the time we go to bed!

By comparison, people in the UK use 40 gallons a day. The Chinese average 22 gallons per day. And in the poorest countries like Kenya, people use less than the minimum 13 gallons to cover basic needs.

That's not good.

29 Jan 2010, Becca Rowland

I really should post this under my pseudonym, "anonymous" because I'm embarrassed to have to admit I'm a water waster. I'm feeling guilty though, so mission accomplished, Leigh!

29 Jan 2010, Cam Gottleigh aka anonymous

Just stumbled on your blogs thanks to Twitter. You have a different approach to blogging, and I like it.

29 Jan 2010, Julie Russell

Leigh, you might have stumbled on a new reality - perhaps governments should just start pumping recycled water through our taps without notice, because the mere mention of drinking recycled water will cause an outcry, as occurred here in Oz when the idea was proposed.

29 Jan 2010, Joshua Roebuck

The tap water here in Singapore is recycled effluent. I'd been drinking it for 2 years before I discovered this fact, and I'm glad it worked out that way. It's perfectly OK to drink and I've never been sick from it, so if your local government proposes this as a solution to a water crisis, trust me, it's OK to drink, assuming it's done right :)

29 Jan 2010, Leigh K Cunningham, www.leighkcunningham.com

"We waste a lot of it with a mindset that water is free and freely available." -- so absolutely true, Leigh! Call me guilty!

29 Jan 2010, Alice Maynard

I can't imagine what it must smell like!

29 Jan 2010, Kat Walsh

And I thought the Ganges was bad, and it is, but at least you can see some filfthy water in there!

29 Jan 2010, Lucy Browne-Wilson

I know this is easy for me to say from my armchair, but can't we galvanize an organization somewhere to take control of cleaning up this river?

29 Jan 2010, Louisa Carrington

OMG those photos are disturbing!

29 Jan 2010, Katherine Charles

Another excellent post, Leigh. I accepted that there were polluted rivers everywhere, but this is crazy!

29 Jan 2010, Allan Grayshore

 
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