With
experts increasingly aware of a looming shortage, this year’s theme of
the United Nations’- sponsored event was “Clean Water for a Healthy
World.”
Held on March 22, participants worldwide gathered to
raise awareness and call for action in protecting both quality and
quantities of the precious resource.
As acknowledged by many
environmentalists, addressing the massive consumption and pollution of
both the meat and dairy industries could effectively eliminate the
Earth’s water crises, as this farmer in California, USA shares.
Grape farmer located near dairy factory
farms, California, USA (M): The ones that have been doing all
these nuts, grapes, vegetables, fruits; we’ve been doing that for the
last hundred years. We had a lot of water. The central valley of
California feeds America, and also other countries. Ever since the dairy
moved in, the water level in my well went dry.
My neighbors’
well went dry. One, two, three, four of our wells are dry. Our water
level was really high before. Now our water level is so low, the farmers
that are doing all the vegetable and fruits are hurting for water,
because we got the dairy here.
VOICE: The United Nations
Environment Program also held a three-day event in Nairobi, Kenya, where
policy makers and scientist participants released a report revealing
that more lives are lost to contaminated water than to wars or other
conflicts.
In fact, every 20 seconds, one child less than age 5
succumbs to water-related disease. Highlighting once again a
livestock-based source of the majority of the world’s water problems was
Mr. Rick Dove of Waterkeepers Alliance in North Carolina, USA.
Rick Dove – Southeastern representative for
Waterkeeper Alliance (M): In eastern North Carolina there are
about ten million hogs producing more fecal waste each and every day
than all the people in the states of North Carolina, California, New
York, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Dakota combined.
On
some of our rivers like the Neuse, we’ve lost over a billion fish, dead
fish since 1991, and just this year we’ve lost about 200 million on the
Neuse River.
VOICE: We thank Mr. Rick Dove and all the
concerned participants of World Water Day 2010 for helping raise
awareness of our need to preserve this life-giving resource.
As
more and more people awaken to the link between water scarcity and
livestock, may we soon herald a meat-free world of lush abundance for
all.
Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the need for
action to reverse these planet-wide tolls, as during an August 2009
videoconference in Thailand.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: Many tens
of thousands of rivers and great lakes are dying, dead, gone or going.
And I don’t know how many more we must wait for to die in order for us
to wake up.
The leaders of the nations must do something. The people
of all nations must do something.
We have to do something to
avoid the tragedy that is already happening to billions of other people.
There are one billion people hungry already because of climate change,
and short of water and food.
And three billion people are short
of water.
Just be veg. Stop the meat, dairy, fish industry. Be
benevolent. Create a merciful energy that will envelop our world, that
will emit mercy, love, protection for us and our children on this
planet. Please take action now.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1593806/world-water-dayhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deane/reflecting-on-world-water_b_508036.htmlhttp://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0322/World-Water-Day-Dirty-water-kills-more-people-than-violence-says-UN http://yubanet.com/world/World-Water-Day-2010-Highlights-Solutions-and-Calls-for-Action-to-Improve-Water-Quality-Worldwide.php