Today is World Water Day and begins the week-long annual observation begun by the United Nations. The overall purpose is to address problems relating to drinking water supply and increase public awareness about the importance of conservation, preservation, and protection of water resources and drinking water supply.
This year the UN has chosen to focus on the waters that cross boundaries and link us all together. I think these calls to action that ask us to remember we’re truly all connected and interdependent are especially important now.
During World Water Week another project is underway that I encourage you to check out and support – the Tap Project. I think this idea is brilliant and reinforces my belief that creative ideas abound and CAN make a difference. The idea was birthed a couple years ago. Restaurants ask clients to donate a dollar or more for the tap water they are usually served for free, and all the collected funds go to support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world. More than 4,200 children die every day of water-related diseases. And every dollar raised provides a child with clean drinking water for 40 days.
Restaurants all over are participating. If you go to the Tap Project website you can search to see if there are any near you. If you’re going to enjoy dinner out this week, why not make it an all-around good experience. And even if you choose not to patronize a restaurant, you can still donate directly to the cause.
Another thing to think about during World Water Week is where does your water come from? Sure, we turn on a tap and there it is. But really, do you know how it got there and from where? It was only a few years ago I researched the watershed of the area I live. Doing so helped me feel connected to the areas around me in ways I had never experienced before. I think it’s important to know. We aren’t separated from one another – we really are linked in so many ways.
A friend, a member of a number of ecopsychology groups, encourages everyone to think of themselves in relationship to the watershed they belong to, and in honor of that to include that description in their signature.
So, with that remembrance, I am
Deborah, of the DesPlaines River-Kankakee River-Illinois River-Mississippi River-Gulf of Mexico
Hi, Deborah! What a lovely sensibility your posts contain. Being a water sign astrologically, I surely relate to what you’ve written. I’m so glad to be reminded of my water home–the Missouri River. My grandfather, who was half Comanche, homesteaded land along the banks of that river, and it resonates to the very core of my being–and it seems to be true of my family members as well. Some of the most powerful memories of the second half of my life are about my rare visits to that place. In the mid-1970s, I encountered a slovely soft lithograph from the 1940s of a riverbank in a second hand store that was going out of busniess. It has been over my ancestral altar ever since, evoking those watery roots. Thanks for the memories! Donna
Hi Donna. Yes, I understand how deep our water connections run! What a wonderful story about your grandfather – and how perfect that you found that photograph.