It was 1992
when the UN designated March 22 as
World Water Day.
Recognising those who face
water scarcity.
Things got worse since.
From California to the Middle East to South Asia,
groundwater reservoirs are depleting.
Droughts. Over-pumping.
Two billion live in river basins
where use exceeds recharge.
Streams dry up.
Lakes slowly die.
Swaths of countryside
reduced to desert.
Millions move to shanty towns
for loss of farmland.
Those who can,
desalinate sea water.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and B.C.,
communities stack sandbags, calling in the
military.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
