Water is life; it is the universal blood of all of us. It would be nice if this concept could open and end all debates, conferences and classes on water-related issues so that we all recognize and celebrate our universal relationship with water.
The way water is treated in this country, as it is in many other countries, depends on the level of money and greed we are talking about. Water, as is much of life, is treated like a commodity which can be privatized and sold off like a box of Cheerios, totally detached from any sense of respect for what water means to life.
This is the situation here in New Mexico, a desert whose Rio Grande has been damned and its water increasingly treated as a commodity, each drop treated like dollars that go in and out of a bank.
The Rio Grande is an artery inside a person not eating healthy, who has forgotten how to treat life with respect and only sees the flashing lights of profit. The following are some examples of what I mean.
The Hoover Dam along the Colorado River, built in 1935, was opened with a celebration that "lonely lands were made fruitful," and that, as interior secretary at that time said, "Pridefully, man acclaims his conquest of nature." The Hoover dam significantly impacted the biodiversity and health of the river ecosystem, all to provide 85 percent of Las Vegas electricity swallowed up every night so that millions of neon lights can tantalize your eyes and wallets.
Dams not only impact the ecosystem in severe ways but also have displaced more than 60 million people worldwide according to some estimates. However in India, a country with the largest number of dams and people displaced by dams, no government report has ever investigated the devastating social impact of the dams.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Many scholars and activists in India say that the number of Indians displaced is around 30 million during the past 50 years. While India's officials celebrate these dams as signs of progress, relishing that man is conqueror of nature, 350 million Indians live below the poverty line and millions are pushed of their homelands. All this social and ecological chaos is a result of those in power using - and abusing - water to create cities designed to let some people's houses glow all night like miniature Las Vegas-casinos and others to serve as those who change the light bulbs.
As more and more water worldwide is being dammed to create electricity for urbanization, geophysicists are starting to find out that there is a veritable shift in the weight on the earth. This shift in weight on the earth as a result of 40,000 large dams and 800,000 smaller ones has slightly altered the speed of the earth's rotation, the tilt of its axis and the shape of the gravitational field. Not only have dams displaced millions of people so that electricity can be pumped into unsustainable casino-style cities, but they have displaced the way water moves on the earth, causing a massive imbalance in water distribution.
Much needs to be said about how we relate to water in New Mexico, especially around dams. Recently, a public hearing was held to discuss whether we should allow power-generating companies to set up shop along the Rio Grande. At issue was whether to let in companies, which will use the little water the Rio has to generate electricity that will be used in another state.
Amazingly, as we mull over who owns every last drop of an already scare resource, we step outside to a 70-degree day in a high desert ecosystem with an endless supply of solar radiation and wind turbulence that can easily generate all the state's electricity if not more. Does this make any sense to any one out there except those who are making money not to pursue such sustainable technology?
Water in New Mexico is not only being treated disrespectfully, but is increasingly becoming a commodity. This trend has tremendous implications for all of us that live in this state, as well as the rest of the world, and will be discussed in my next column.
Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions or comments for Maceo Carrillo Martinet can be sent to conuco8@unm.edu.
