World Water Crisis (LIFE)

[funmaxus]

FuturesJackal,

Thank you for sharing your story. I actually found more stuff, but it made me very upset and angry to the point that I haven't yet shared it with the board.

My personal background and interest in water stems from growing up in a community where the water was extremely contaminated. So much so, that there was a film or rather a foam like a root beer float on top of the ice tea. None of the dishes were ever clean because of this constant residue film.

My neighbors father died of cancer at an early age. It seemed like everyone had some form of cancer though, like it was normal. Years later, I had learned that my neighbor's father, while lying on his death bed had confessed to dumping barrels of chemicals in the local river, per the request of his employer, which poisoned the river, killed the fish and ruined the drinking water for the entire city. His confession, along with others helped win a court battle against the company, but the people that survived don't have their loved ones and eventually the community became a ghost town as people left and no one would move in.

Fast forward 30 something years later, I'm living in another state. When I first moved to this little sleepy town, I visited a park that had a lake. Next to the lake is a small park station that rents boats. On the side of the building are pictures of local residents displaying their fish caught from the lake. While looking at the pictures and reading the descriptions, I was struck how peculiar it was that most everyone tossed their fish back in the water. Later while at the park, my child met another child who had deformities and cancer. Her mother told me that there was a high rate of cancer in the area. At that moment, I hadn't "connected the dots" and continued to frequent the park.

Months later I read how there used to be a large chemical plant next to the lake and after a very heavy rainstorm, the retaining wall broke and flooded the lake decades ago... At first the town hauled their water in by trucks and then built new pipes to pump fresh water from the next town over because the lake was considered to be ruined. The chemical plant declared bankruptcy soon after the spill, which caused the town and the government to clean up the mess. After reading the article, I understood why that park was always so empty and I haven't been back to that pretty little lake since.

Clean water is a very precious resource.

In my next post, I'll share what I found to be so disturbing about "fracking."