Water, water everywhere - but only if it's properly filtered and bottled and wrapped in an attractive package

I just found out from a friend that it's Blog Action Day 2010; I'm not so plugged into this whole sphere o' bloggers. The topic du jour is water ... so here goes.

Like food, I only just recently started paying much attention to water. The first piece that sparked my attention was when I realized a) that I ought to be drinking more of it and b) that I really like it. A few years back, I started listening to all the nutrition advice that said I should be drinking a lot more water and a lot less soda; and slowly I transitioned over to water and juice, and then just varying kinds of water (bubbly and non). I like fizzy water, especially if it has a little flavor; but on many days, there's nothing that beats the incredibly refreshing taste of a cold glass of water. (I've never understood, BTW, why people say water has no taste. It tastes like ... water!)

My water justice awakening came through the Boston Faith & Justice Network (also, the ultimate source of my food justice awakening), at their Gratitude & Creation event in February 2009. The event included a session by Corporate Accountability on corporate water rights and their devastating effects on local environments and economies both here at home and around the world. This started me on a trail of water-justice exploring, from the abuses and folly of the bottled water industry to the availability (or lack thereof) of water fountains in public places. I'd always thought that the bottled/filtered water craze was silly and unnecessary (full public disclosure: I do own a Brita pitcher), but around this time it went from "unnecessary" to "unjust."

I don't know that I can make the case for water access better than others who have spent a lot of time doing it. But I think this is one of those clear and easy issues on which a simple behavior shift can have a powerful effect for justice: those of us who are blessed with ample supplies of extremely safe potable water have a wide variety of ways to get that water and carry it around with us that don't degrade the environments and livelihoods of others. So for Blog Action Day 2010, I hope you'll commit to making the water that we all need to live a resources that we all have by right.