The summer rains (or ‘Mango Showers’) have returned a couple times since, bringing with them the promise of cooler mornings. In the midst of Kerala’s hottest season, such times are welcome moments of relief from the heat and humidity and offer the possibility of NOT sweating at 7:30 am. However, there is a much more important reason to welcome the rain . . . With insufficient rainfall during the last monsoon season, a water shortage has affected Kerala for the past several months. Although I have gone relatively unaffected, other YAVs have shared stories of getting into the shower to find they were missing an essential ingredient, or have lost water mid-bath (they resorted to water bottles). A few weeks ago, Lindsey’s school sent students home because there was not enough water to support everyone. The rain is certainly needed.
Such stories have made the global water crisis blatantly apparent. At home I was able to ignore this inconvenient truth; yes, I turned off the faucet while brushing my teeth and opted out of car washes, but the length of my showers went unchanged and I washed clothes when they weren’t actually dirty. The drought in Atlanta a few years ago did bring water concerns to the forefront, especially when I talked with my brother and sister-in-law about their attempts at conservation, but it was still business as usual in St. Louis. However, the view from the other side of the globe looks a bit different.
March 22nd was World Water Day. To mark the event, “The Hindu” (India’s English newspaper) had been running some articles pertaining to the water crisis. One discussed a free market system in Chile that allows multinational corporations to purchase water rights. As a result the public loses access to this basic necessity, and towns dry up with their water source. Reading this reminded me of a similar situation here in India, one I learned of from a documentary we watched with Achen soon after our arrival. Some of the country’s villages are facing problems of severe water scarcity. These do not come from insufficient rainfall (although I’m sure this doesn’t help), but from Indian subsidiaries of Coca-Cola whose bottling operations over-exploit and pollute water resources. Like in the towns of Chile, corporations here have left the people of forgotten villages thirsting for water.
As I learn more about the social factors affecting India, there is one thought that finds constant expression: the people of this world are deeply interconnected. Though we carry different passports and speak different languages, we are all members of one creation - a diverse community bound by common hopes, needs, and experiences. Yet, in our brokenness, we have lost sight of this connection, making decisions without knowledge or consideration of how they impact others. Right now we face the shared crisis of depleted water resources. For some this goes largely unnoticed, for others it is a daily reality. But as stewards of God’s creation, caring for the earth and all its people is a task of our global community.
In a many colored garden we are growing side by side,
We will rise all together, we will rise.
With the sun and rain upon us, not a row will be denied,
We will rise all together, we will rise.
We will rise like the ocean, we will rise like the sun,
We will rise all together, we will rise.
In our may colored fabrics made from strands of common thread,
We will rise all together, we will rise.
- From “Common Thread,” a song we sing at YAV retreats
Barrionuevo, Alexei. “A Chilean Town Withers in Free Market for Water.”
See also Srivastava, Amit. “Communities Reject Coca-Cola in India.”
Also published at www.sudieniesen.com
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