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"What's in it?" ...Asks our middle child - te mokapuna. "Well... 2 x Hydrogen and 1 Oxygen. " At 8 there is a satisfied skip at my answer. It leaves me mulling questions...How do we make water - really? How do we use it? Abuse it? It's raining today a Chali Rain day; my eldest named a liquid treasure. Her dad a sky diver only ever got a day off when it rained and today it is indeed a Rainy day. February in Central Otago brings very few of them. One - on the 4th of Feb. Those adventure tourism professionals must be relishing the lie in bed this morning. It's the first in six weeks. Huge tracts of New Zealand officially in drought. Rivers dry - fish being moved by hand, stock hungry and the price of beef and milk set to soar. Gods own hydro powered nation may be on the whip lash end of a winter power price hike if the heavens don't open more frequently between now and then. Our changing use of assets puts the challenge of local governance into new paradigms - metering water, restricting water usage and debating ownership. Drive through McKenzie country or the back blocks of Bendigo and count the irrigation pivot pylons while trying to recall how the desert plains of the Lindis lands and Ardgour valley look before we turned them green. GM grass sprouting where there is no irrigation - is it dew feasting? Irrigation changes not only river flow levels but water table levels - flooding now seen in the Waitaki Valley on low rain fall levels due to a high water table in the wet season or bone dry plateaus in the drought. It is our base common denominator. We are water. Regardless of colour or creed. Look around you and see how we respect it? Hoteliers - are you still placing two bottles of plastic treasure beside each guest at turn down each night? A responsible guest will turn down your offer. Piles of bottles form the only landmarks on hikes through a Thai jungle to see the waterfall which today is not flowing. Do you clean your teeth with the tap on, save your grey water for your plants or fly your tipple in from the French Alps? How you act speaks so loudly I can't hear what you are saying. We take it for granted like its a fossil fuel and it may well be. Though there is no sustainable substitute. We need the real McCoy, no additives ideally, those we have already are due to our stuff ups with pollution and poor diet. I am far from guilt free. We have a bore and I use it to grow lawns and food. The hole in the ground so deep it continues to give me flow when the river below is low enough to make me guilty of consumption. I have the occasional major system flaw. Like piling the pony poop really close to the well neck. Thank god the engineer next door pointed that out before todays rain fall or we might have been settling a very different score. By the time it had been raining for four hours yesterday the social media trolls were over it already complaining about the weather. The council customer service teams are a long time over it I'm sure - the phone calls about the metering, the leaks and the monitoring. No understanding of the generational inequity that's resulted in these outcomes. A council that has managed to keep the shit out of the lake and the water flowing from your tap when your population has doubled needs to be congratulated not harranged. Look around the world and become fascinated by the way we honour the water gods or fight the lack of them. Western use of water is gluttony without breaking a commandment. Flushing toilets, swimming pools, power showers. On a Rainy day like today I suggest we sit back and look at our behaviour, while enjoying the sound of the rain on the roof and the wearing of gumboots to school. Thanks be to god above in the highest for crying on our day. Save it and treasure it because a day without it we can survive but even a week without it will kill many. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
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