Three recent events have given me cause to revisit a taken for granted commodity – water. The first is the increase in the cost of our use of water and efforts at trying to conserve our use of the resource. The second is the continuing privatization of water sources/rights in the majority world – mainly by foreign companies and mostly with some government or local entrepreneurial support. And the third, which follows up for the preceding events, relates to my continuing reflections on growing up in Guyana which is referred to as “land of many waters” – a place where water can be plentiful and painfully scarce depending on where you live.
Rivers and waters have always been powerful imageries for me growing up in that land. Hence, conserving water will not have been a thought – in spite of our parents’ regular mantra: “do not waste water”. In the context of rice planting, cane cultivation and other kinds of crop farming water, though plentiful, quickly took on the imagery of a symbol for life. My Hindu and Muslim ancestors and neighbour’s daily ritual of prayers, pouring water on a stone, and ablutions before prayers further affirmed the idea of life.
Indeed, water is a symbol of life (noted in all religions). It is a basic condition for all life on earth and is to used wisely and shared for the benefit of all. Ever since God’s spirit moved on the face of the deep, the presence of water meant life and its absence spelt death. We are born from water and our bodies constitute more water than anything else. In the womb we swim in a watery space of our mother. Further, the earth is a watery planet (70%). In fact, I think of the Caribbean as more water than land mass. The future of the whole earth is tied to water.
In a way, one can reasonably contend that water frames the whole biblical discourse from Genesis to Revelation. And water has been represented in a number of ways in Scriptures: to be feared (the deep); as a source of life; it has been associated with renewal, rebirth, cleansing, saving etc. But it is also waters (rivers) that have shaped and established Empires and the sacred texts highlight this fact as well.
Efforts at privatizing water locates a fundamental human distortion of a basic necessity of life: that of turning water into an economic thing that will mint money. Hence, the right to water or the human right to share in a blessing of the universe (this watery planet for all) has been colonised through that shift in turning water a commodity. Water, the symbol of life and a gift for all, must now be paid for. This is the price that we pay for courting neo-liberal capitalism dressed up in fancy clothing. On its altar lives are daily sacrificed to appease the god of the market.
And, it is not insignificant that the word “privatization” has an interesting etymological history. Among its Latin roots is the word “privare” which means to deprive, rob, bereave, dispossess, and deny. The right to water – a gift of the Divine for all – has now been stolen through privatization and by "privateers"!!!
(copyright jagessar 2008)
Rivers and waters have always been powerful imageries for me growing up in that land. Hence, conserving water will not have been a thought – in spite of our parents’ regular mantra: “do not waste water”. In the context of rice planting, cane cultivation and other kinds of crop farming water, though plentiful, quickly took on the imagery of a symbol for life. My Hindu and Muslim ancestors and neighbour’s daily ritual of prayers, pouring water on a stone, and ablutions before prayers further affirmed the idea of life.
Indeed, water is a symbol of life (noted in all religions). It is a basic condition for all life on earth and is to used wisely and shared for the benefit of all. Ever since God’s spirit moved on the face of the deep, the presence of water meant life and its absence spelt death. We are born from water and our bodies constitute more water than anything else. In the womb we swim in a watery space of our mother. Further, the earth is a watery planet (70%). In fact, I think of the Caribbean as more water than land mass. The future of the whole earth is tied to water.
In a way, one can reasonably contend that water frames the whole biblical discourse from Genesis to Revelation. And water has been represented in a number of ways in Scriptures: to be feared (the deep); as a source of life; it has been associated with renewal, rebirth, cleansing, saving etc. But it is also waters (rivers) that have shaped and established Empires and the sacred texts highlight this fact as well.
Efforts at privatizing water locates a fundamental human distortion of a basic necessity of life: that of turning water into an economic thing that will mint money. Hence, the right to water or the human right to share in a blessing of the universe (this watery planet for all) has been colonised through that shift in turning water a commodity. Water, the symbol of life and a gift for all, must now be paid for. This is the price that we pay for courting neo-liberal capitalism dressed up in fancy clothing. On its altar lives are daily sacrificed to appease the god of the market.
And, it is not insignificant that the word “privatization” has an interesting etymological history. Among its Latin roots is the word “privare” which means to deprive, rob, bereave, dispossess, and deny. The right to water – a gift of the Divine for all – has now been stolen through privatization and by "privateers"!!!
(copyright jagessar 2008)
