Water without Borders

In my seminar class on methods in Enviro-Education when I was assigned this project “The Environment and Me” I felt like how Rufus Rainwright self-described his relationship to the Opera. This emotive songster openly rebelled against his folksinger mum at the age of fourteen: “I didn't choose opera, she chose me.”


I feel a similar connection to lakes, rivers, ponds and streams—and on summer holidays oceans, tides and canoe-rides. Now acknowledging this aloud sounds like grandiosity ...

Yet it makes sense on an intuitive level, as Suzuki has lucidly said, water and humanity are inseperable

Every one of us is at least 60% water by weight, we’re just a big blob of water with enough organic thickener added to keep us from dribbling away on the floor. When you take a drink of water you think it is London water. But in reality the hydrological cycle cartwheels water around the planet and any drink you take, wherever you are, has [some] molecules from every ocean on the planet, the canopy of the Amazon, the steppes of Russia. We are water.  Whatever we do to water we do to ourselves

If I were to have had a rite of passage with water it was in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Specifically landlocked Burkina Faso reinforced in me how

the 21st century will be dominated by concerns of provisions of water.

As countries became submerged in post-9/11 hysteria, I took part with a number of Canadians in a cultural immersion and non-formal learning exchange to the pays des hommes intègres [the country of noble men].


From the capital of Ouaga--devoid of a significant water-table--our group was first whisked to the arid North, then to the greener parts of the southwest. For the next four months we completed the second portion of our service learning project—hosted by host families and taking part in “deep hanging out” (an expression I picked up about fieldwork when I later studied Cultural Anthropology).

Pals from the exchange--Sidiki, Abdoul, Hamadé, Théao & Kadisso. Greentea, music and "la causerie" [shooting the breeze] made for great afternoons

Once I let go of ideas that I was there to help, there emerged room for mutual understanding.

Completely contrary to “charity”-driven notions we are customarily force-fed about Africa, these urban dwellers embodied a strong sense of civic engagement, neighbourliness and good-living that was at once familiar and novel. 



In West Africa, desertification expands at a rate of five kilometres per year. No matter how often the main culprits for expanding aridness were “taught” to the populace—avoiding les feux de brousse [intentional fires to cause grass growth for herds], reducing tree cutting, and halting cotton-crop production—these practices abounded.

The International Monetary Fund's legacy: for many cotton is the only means to cash, but soils are exhausted within 3 years and debts ensue to cover fertilizer, pesticide costs. (Personal photo.)

Solutions rooted in survival and empowerment were those described by localities as successful. 

For example this year, an action taken by 5000-strong was done to draw attention to sanitation and water need in Burkina.

Néré oil extracted at women's coop group we fundraised for

Contrary to tree replanting practices in Canada, seedlings in the Sub-Sahara require fertilizing, watering and care. In turn, eucalyptus, mango, shea and néré trees are breeds favoured in reforestation efforts. Sold locally or for export, families have an incentive in not falling these trees.








Who I learned most from was my "host father".  Agriculturalist, activist, traveller, intellectual and socialite, he found agency not only with the diverse crop-system he grew, managing multiple small-business ventures (animal husbandry, honey production).  To quote I poem I wrote a long-while ago, he  also he was driven by solidarity and organizing with

the many without 
the means to fulfill the ills of believed potential
to arrive à manger                               [to be able to have enough to eat]
to combattre la galère                        [to fight utter poverty]
which will be death of us all  ...

His stance on drawing upon the ideas & technologies from both the global North & South is very much like "two-eyed seeing" discussed before.  His perspective was the result of his own praxis and imbued by an agricultural exchange to France:

"Evolve" as we stand with one foot in the village
and the other in the West.  Belonging to neither
not sure where to stand, but aware of what we
don't have and rejecting 
les vieux who keep us from moving "forward"

Be sure to have a saine idea of what          [French pun "saine": healthy]
development policies have on notre peuple         [our people/nation]
Cotton for northern export and the dumping of Northern
products from global markets.  Charity for
white man's conscience, and employment.


C'est une longue lutte, mais même s'il       
n'y a pas de travail, il y a beaucoup de     
travail à faire                 

[It's a long struggle, but even if there is no work, there's is still plenty of work to do]                             

I also befriended a guy who ran a water-dispensary. He charged 50 francs CFA or less to the women and children who came to fill the basins they carried atop their heads. We talked politics and town gossip while filling these tubs.

My time in Burkina never felt like the scenes from World Vision tele-devised to make you feel guilt. True, many families cannot afford installing a tap on their property, and true parents make the tough calculation between primary school or survival,

what is patently false are the harmful ways we the global minority condescendingly represent Sub-Saharan subsistence.


Adult literacy and the education of women and girls reverberate social and environmental justice. Practices of family planning, birth control, water use, hygiene and agriculture are récoltés chez les apprenants [cultivated amongst learners to borrow the phrase of one literacy trainer]. Improvements from microcredit, cooperatives make noticeable changes too.

Finally the points that resound for me in my educational practices involve:

• Ask tough questions when dishing out cash for “international development” initiatives. What percentage of money goes to admin fees? What is their larger vision? To what extent are local stakeholders articulating their needs?

• Advocate Stephen Lewis argues structural adjustments policies should be rectified to meet the UN's Millennium Development goals (listen to this powerful lecture series he gave in 2005).  Initiatives that support primary education and fight discrimination against women will fight the AIDS pandemic and fulfill the promises of past G8 Summits. Let your member of parliament know how urgent a priority this is (email counts like a letter).

• Before dishing out cash for a well-intentioned well-building project, or for that matter, traveling there yourself, consider a few hard questions. Is there evidence of community consensus in terms of need, location and access? 

• Quality water access is also issue closer to home: write to the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs that contaminated water is unacceptable on First Nation reserves.