Dear Editor:
As a centenarian, I have seen many methods of saving water.
In my youth in Holland there was only a square basin indoors to catch rain, as the nearby sea prevented any pure water wells. In Canadian farms we had a well discovered by a water “witcher.” In both these cases water was very precious and used sparingly, often collected and reused!
Later wells were drilled near under ground water sources. Later still, whole towns had water supplied for all their inhabitants.
In the 1990s I was amused to see adults carrying plastic bottles of water everywhere. No one would be thirsty again!
But now I read of protesters walking in the Guelph, Erin, Elora and Aberfoyle areas – to awaken us to the importance of preserving our water sources!
We have allowed companies to use our basic need of water, into a convenient and disposable clutter!
Every speaker’s desk has plastic bottle of water, every car driver gulps from a bottle, even pedestrians slurp from a bottle in their back packs, and mothers place a bottle in a child’s school pack too!
Surely every one knows that this water in the plastic containers came from the tap! We are never far from a drink of water nowadays.
Almost any hallway has a water tap – with a paper cup too!
We are so very far from that early outside pump that we forget that water comes from the ground – far, far underground.
What if it stopped? What will it take to awaken us to be very, very sparing of this precious source of our very lives?
The walkers in the Ear to the Groundwater protest need our support.
Mother used to say “mark my words…” if she wanted to really impress a word of caution. So I caution you younger folks, mark my words of caution: save your water now – while it is still here!
Sytske Drijber,
Rockwood