Water for the Ages

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A bit of background about the Water for the Ages project…

Water is life, something humankind learns as a child. Water, air, and sustenance are critical to survival. This is true for the majority of living creatures, as well as for the planet of Earth.

This water blog was created as a place to aggregate information pertaining to international water issues. Because water is an encompassing topic, primary subjects will include (in no particular order):

• Water Availability

• Water Management

• Water Privatization

• Water Processes

• Water Quality

• Water Quantity

Of special importance to me is the juxtaposition of the global economic system and developing countries, especially capitalism’s effects on water in these countries.

“I understood when I was just a child that without water, everything dies. I didn’t understand until much later that no one “owns” water. It might rise on your property, but it just passes through. You can use it, and abuse it, but it is not yours to own. It is part of the global commons, not “property” but part of our life support system“

Marq de Villiers, WATER, 2000

A bit of background about myself…

My name is Abigail, and I live in Olympia, WA. I am immensely interested in international watershed management issues. I believe:

• it is imperative global water supplies are managed sustainably to ensure water availability for current and future generations of life.

• access to clean, fresh water is a fundamental human right.

• the current “global-framework” of the world is not functioning in a sustainable manner for preservation of this precious resource, but that within this “global-framework” the opportunity exists to ensure sustainable and beneficial use of water throughout the world.

I suppose to understand more about my passion in the field, a brief biography might be helpful. I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in East Tennessee. As a child, my “sense of place” was realized during daily adventures on moss-covered forest floors, running through cow-fields to evade the volatile, neighborhood bull, and swimming in local creeks with my neighbors. At the time, I did not realize what lasting reverberations these experiences (and others) would cause in my life as an adult, and the depth of commitment to the environment that was ingrained into my being.

Water was a natural transition in regards to my studies in the environmental field. I have always been a lover of H2O in all forms: rivers, oceans, thunderstorms, and snow. Over the past six years, I have been working in the watershed field of environmental studies. Beginning work in the field as an environmental educator of watershed issues in the Tennessee Valley, continuing on to study sustainable agriculture and forest restoration techniques in Central America, leading presently to my work managing water resources in Washington State. I have investigated this issue from several perspectives: student, citizen, non-profit employee, volunteer, governmental employee, and activist.