WATER - magazineb

When we turn to water, we see a thing that is not in competition with its surroundings but in cocreation and coexistence with it. The water doesn’t desire to best the earth. The water simply is. And the earth simply is.

The outrageous success of bottled water, in a country where more than 89 percent of tap water meets or exceeds federal health and safety regulations, regularly wins in blind taste tests against name-brand waters, and costs 240 to 10,000 times less than bottled water, is an unparalleled social phenomenon,

A working definition of freshwater sustainability that is true to these attributes might be this: in any watershed, ensure that basic water needs are met for all people; preserve ecological infrastructure so as to provide the quantity, quality, and timing of water flows needed to sustain ecosystem services; and where groundwater is tapped, ensure t