Reflections from an Earth Day Water Warrior

By Amanda Sebert As you know, for more than a decade, Clean Water Action, our members, and allies across the country have been fighting to restore protection to the small streams and wetlands that feed the drinking water for 1 in 3 of us. You can learn more here. Why have we been fighting for so long? Because any threat to someone’s source of clean water is a threat to their life. You may have heard that the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposal to #ProtectCleanWater is a massive expansion. I can’t stress enough how untrue that is. EPA’s proposal restores protections that were lost a decade ago. EPA did this for a simple reason: anyone who has ever built a sand castle or played in the mud understands how water runs together and collects en masse. Our water is connected and different sources of water share the same aquatic life, bacteria, and most certainly, if polluted, the same toxic chemicals. I spent Earth Day representing Clean Water Action at the fair trade non-profit store Ten Thousand Villages in Boston this year. I asked shoppers to sign post cards to be sent to the EPA in support of the proposal to #ProtectCleanWater. When finalized the restorations will impact the drinking water for 8.8 million people in New England. Globally, protections to keep water safe and clean are critically lacking. More than one billion people around the world do not have adequate access to safe water. Many women in Asia must travel miles to their closest water source. These women may be the same women creating the items for sale at Ten Thousand Villages. The store was the perfect setting to engage shoppers in conversation about important issues. Even a couple from London took the time to share with me their knowledge of water protection policies in the United Kingdom and expressed their support for protections to drinking water everywhere, not just in their country or community. Only 2.5% of all water on earth is fresh. Threats to our clean water sources are a global problem. Sustainable water use must be a global goal in order to protect both people and the planet. With an ever-growing human population in addition to rapid increases in industrialization, the demand for water is ever-increasing. It only took moments for shoppers at Ten Thousand Villages to sign a postcard, but I did my best to use that valuable time to educate and hopefully to inspire. The United States is an economic, social, and technological world leader, and with this great power comes the tremendous responsibility of leading sustainably. But how can we make our neighbors and fellow Americans care about protecting our water?  For a start, I stepped out and asked absolute strangers to sign postcards and speak out for the water we so often take for granted.  You can too!