World Water Day: How AGWA staff values water

Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day. World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the global water crisis. This year’s theme, Valuing Water, looks beyond just the financial value of water to the enormous and complex value for households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the environment. Water is more than just physical water—its significance and impact “flows” into every aspect of life.

In honor of this theme, we, the AGWA secretariat, would like to share how we value water.

While you read, please enjoy this water-themed Spotify playlist. After all, water should be enjoyed by all of the senses.

Anishinaabewi-gichigami

The author as a child, post-nap, on the banks of Anishinaabewi-gichigami

Like the serpentine walls of a sandstone slot canyon, water has carved and polished the contours of my life. I entered this world near the salt-spiked mouth of the Nooksack River and spent childhood summers with my grandparents on the shores of Lake Superior (Canada / USA), called Anishinaabewi–gichigami by the indigenous Anishinaabe nations. In Anishinaabe tradition, women are water protectors, charged with teaching us the value of water. I am deeply grateful for these warriors, whose prayers and tobacco continue to rise over the lakes, rivers, and oceans, seeking to restore balance between humanity and all our relations. Chi miigwech. – Ingrid Timboe

Waterfalls along the Road to Hana. Maui, Hawaii.

Water has always represented a way to connect with the natural environment. Many of my favorite memories are getting out of town to go exploring nature. Growing up away from the coasts, that always meant a hike or camping trip to nearby rivers and lakes where I could admire the wildlife, enjoy the scenery, and get a chance to reset. – Alex Mauroner

Sunset overlooking Lake Titicaca, which sits on (or rather, partially forms) the border between Perú and Bolivia. We earned the view after hiking for nearly 3 hours to reach this mountain peak.

For me, water is what brings peace. Being from the landlocked Midwest of the US, it may seem that I don't have a clear connection to water, but we are surrounded by lakes and rivers. I spent summers there with my family, and have many happy memories near the water. And as I've traveled and lived across the world, water has been what connects me back to a feeling of home – from the Missouri River to the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. I feel renewed and inspired whenever I am near it. – Anna Ondracek

A snow-fed lake in Washington state in the Western US. Mt. Rainier, the tallest singular peak in the lower 48 US states, towers over the lake. You can swim in the lake, but it is VERY cold.

I went swimming almost every day as a child. Growing up in a warm climate, being in water was one of the only ways I could enjoy being outside. I had swimming birthday parties (even in the winter), participated in swim teams, and, when I was older, lifeguarded and taught swim lessons as my summer job. Now I spend way less time in the pool, but I still crave that feeling of jumping into water, having my breath briefly taken away, and then the subsequent complete sense of calm. There is nothing better than floating in a pool, lake, river, or ocean on a hot summer day. – Kari Davis

My son and his love for water

The images of water in my life are overwhelming in their emotional load. I have been blessed with a lot of powerful images and experiences: swimming with river dolphins in the Ganga Ma in India, watching Jabiru storks eat large piranhas at dawn in the Brazilian Pantanal, carefully bathing from a rainfed bucket in a round hut in South Africa's Eastern Cape, making stone dams in the creek behind my house as a boy. But I think the strongest image of the value of water to me was hearing a young woman in Ethiopia tell my wife and myself that her fear of drought and famine led her to give her child up for adoption. A boy who is our son now, some 10 years later. The value of water to me is in her fear — and in the gift of the trust of one parent in two strangers to care for and raise her child. A boy whose third word, after Mama and Papa, was water. – John Matthews