After air, water is the second most critical requirement for life and it is measured both by quantity and quality. Humans and most animals need water every day and few can survive more than three or four days without it. Plants also need a regular supply to their roots.
The purity of the water we drink also is essential. Toxic chemicals can easily slip into our bodies when carried by water. So humanity and all ecosystems need a steady, dependable, clean supply of water. As long as they get it, hardly anybody pays attention. But when water systems fail, as they have in Flint, Michigan recently, the people affected are understandably enraged.
What is the regular management and pre-planning work that needs to be done to ensure that our water supplies are safe and accessible? Who does it? We the people must play a larger role in this, and we need to be informed.
Marian Beddill’s full-time career was substantially about the management of water. As a volunteer spokesperson and advocate in Bellingham, Marian has been instrumental through the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship in caring for the earth to enable a safe, stable, sustainable life for future generations, in being just and fair in her dealings with other people, in guarding the integrity of our election systems, in being involved in political action, and in communication as it pertains to the ways folks exchange information and work to get things done