In the two wonderful languages I have spent most of my life in, there are two sayings in relation to liquids -basically water- that stand out for me at this particular time.
One is “si no vols caldo, dues tasses”, in Catalan, and one in English, “water water everywhere and not a drop to drink”.
Like sayings worldwide, these phrases synthesize popular wisdom and culture. The first of these two phrases basically means that if you refuse something you don’t want -like a kid refusing a bowl of greasy soup- the parental answer might well be: then here comes a second bowlful duckie! The second, in fact taken from literature -Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous 18th-century poem “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”- shows us the contradiction of being surrounded by water -at sea, that is-, yet being unable to drink any and about to die of thirst. The two meaningful images can be seen to have a direct link with climate change and the need we have today to learn from nature. Pity that this is a dream that largely floats past unheeded causing the future of the planet to be left -once again- in jeopardy. Would it be too harsh to say that this is thanks largely to the “puppet politicians” we have in power today, and yesterday?
Just recently Catalonia, and much of Southern Europe, has been greatly affected by cyclone Harry (no, I don’t think the name has to do with the cyclonic British Royal Family). To Catalans, the expression “Si no vols caldo, dues copes” springs to mind immediately. In other words, if we thought past cyclones might have made us come to our senses, here’s a fresh one in the face to show how wrong we were not to clinch the lesson! Yet, our carelessness leads us to be constantly -and increasingly- asking for trouble, always falling into the same old traps. For, lo and behold, incompetent politicians are already announcing the millions of Euros that are to be invested in re-sanding one politician referred to as “beachless beaches” once again after Gloria cyclone took the last mega-tolls on budgets doing just that. “Must keep ‘em beaches intact or we’ll be losing out on the tourist economy race” is their only concern. Votes yes, future of the planet, nay.
As you may know, just recently rude Harry left its mark on the Costa Brava. And on our block, too. I found it quite stimulating, though, to replace painful gym time with a morning participating with fellow neighbours in the completely futile task of sweeping out water from our communal garage. Futile because no sooner had one swept a wave doorwards, it immediately found its way back. Water simply doesn’t obey nor cooperate when it insists on finding its own level! That said, it is in the origin of the garage’s flooding that the punch comes. For the truth is that it could not be put down to a hole in the wall nor an invading stream. No! Not one drop of water was seeping in under doors or anything as banal as that. The huge presence of water, in a building that has no reason to suffer from external flooding, was caused by a massive arrival of external waters that used the very drains that had originally been intended to expell small spills of water from cleaning operations in the garage! No drains, no flooding in this case! Crazy? So, as the Catalan saying preaches, the truth is that if you don’t want stupidity to abound, beware you are not made to swallow a double dose!
Of course, all this is what happens when you get profit-mad flat-earthers designing buildings in Mediterranean countries. In the context of Spain’s politically incompetent administration alone -causing havoc to Catalonia's vulnerable Mediterranean reality- this leads us to a situation in which currently, 2,7 million people live in as many as 200,000 homes -many of quite recent construction- in directly flood-prone areas. Can you imagine? Can anybody see any kind of explanation for this other than straight immoral profiteering and irresponsible exposure of tax-paying citizens to increasingly common hazards. If we bear in mind that one of Spain’s largest builders -Ferrovial- has just moved their fiscal headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands (to avoid paying taxes), one can fully understand that private interest is the priority, not our security nor a sustainable economy. Suffice it to remember that many of the 220+ drowned in last October’s terrible València floods lived in poorer areas made openly vulnerable to lethal flooding since a monstrous 1969 Túria-river diversion operation was conducted by the Franco dictatorship to keep flooding away from the richer city centre. Add to that a fiercely corrupt local government that failed to give any kind of warning until long after the worst flooding had peaked and you can get a good idea of the kind of misgovernment so many Catalans and Valencians are exposed to today.
And what of our other English saying “water water everywhere and not a drop to drink”? While millions are spent on arms for Ukraine and Israel, it is calculated that an investment amounting to one twentieth part of the arms bill, if spent on water issues, could solve the world’s water problem in a decade. (That is but one estimate experts have made). OK, sea water processing is both expensive and at present offers salt-contamination derivatives. But it all hangs on what you consider “expensive” to be. In any case, I’m sure there’s a Nobel prize to be won there, just as long as Planet-smasher Trump doesn’t get his claws on it first. I’m also sure that the world would be a better place if more had been spent on planet sustainability and public education -and less on arms and the colonization of self-governing community-nations- since the day Colleridge wrote his famous poem. Who knows, we might not be getting that unwanted second bowl of broth pushed down our throats. And perhaps some of the undrinkable “water water everywhere” might finally be made drinkable and better distributed. In any event, isn’t it about time we learned some of water’s unheeded lessons? The writing -and the mud- are on the wall. It’s never too late to learn from it all, especially if we are to find a way of preventing water from becoming the bone of contention of future wars, a prophecy the pundits are sadly pointing to. So, no more unheeded UNPO water lessons please, if we are to survive that is.
