July 4, 2009

Water Woes

Conference tackles issues regarding ‘water-rich and water-poor’ around the world

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 11.08.07

MIAMI | Think about this the next time you take a drink of water: If all the fresh water on earth were put into a bucket, only one teaspoon would be safe to drink.

Making matters worse, “a lot of that percentage is also now polluted,” said Dominican Sister Patricia Siemen, an attorney who directs the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, a collaborative project between Miami’s two Catholic colleges, St. Thomas University and Barry University. Founded in fall 2006, the center sponsored a two-day conference Oct. 24-25 on “Water World: H2O, Life and the Future.” The center’s goal is to change the way people — especially those in the legal profession — approach environmental issues.

“We need a huge shift in consciousness about our relationship with water,” Sister Siemen said, noting that water is a universal source of life as well as a powerful sacramental symbol in Catholic theology.

Issues regarding water are now “emerging all over the world,” she said. “It is the lack of water, the privatization of water, the diversion of water from some of its natural purposes into a commodity we can buy and sell.”

That raises moral issues for those who do not have access to potable water or cannot afford to pay for it, Sister Siemen said.

The first day of the conference, held at Barry University, featured an interdisciplinary approach, with various academic departments looking at water from artistic, scientific, spiritual, ethical and literary perspectives.

Among those who spoke at Barry were photographer Clyde Butcher, author of “Florida’s Wild Waters: Sanctuaries at Risk,” and Michael Grunwald, author of “The Swamp,” a follow-up to Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ “River of Grass,” which turns 60 this year.

Speakers at St. Thomas emphasized the ethical and moral issues associated with water shortages and overconsumption.

Although the earth is 97 percent water, two-thirds of it is trapped in glaciers or snow, and less than 1 percent is available for human consumption, said Cynthia Barnett, author of “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re surrounded by water if it’s not drinkable,” said Barnett, noting that Florida is a good example of how “we just don’t have (water) in the time and place where people need it.”

About 80 percent of Florida’s population lives south of Orlando, but only 44 percent of the state’s annual rainfall occurs there. Similarly, the Great Lakes hold 95 percent of the United States’ fresh water, but only 8 percent of the population lives there.

Human beings need a minimum of 13 gallons of water per day, but one-third of the planet gets less than that, Barnett said. People in Gambia get the least, about one gallon of water per day.

Floridians on average use 174 gallons per person per day, with the Sarasota area at the low end with 90 gallons and Orange County at the high end at 250 gallons. The U.S. average is 180 gallons per person per day, Barnett said.

Water shortages are predicted to become critical around the world in the next 50 years, but there are things people can do to alleviate the situation, Barnett said, noting that Sarasota’s relatively low rate of water usage is no accident, as civic leaders there have put programs in place to reduce consumption.

“It’s a matter of Floridians learning that we don’t need more and more water to keep our prosperity,” Barnett said.

“This is a matter of faith,” said Teresita Gonzalez, coordinator of Amor en Acción (Love in Action), a lay missionary group that reaches out to the poorest of the poor in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Gonzalez pointed out that Haiti’s water quality ranks 101 out of 122 countries in the world, and only 48 percent of people there have access to potable water.

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