Profit motive for water a dangerous path

By Adrian Nieoczym - Kelowna Capital News - March 26, 2008

Henry Michel, of the Shuswap First Nation, drums a prayer song at a First Nations Gathering-of-Waters ceremony for World Water Day on Tuesday at the UBC Okanagan campus.

Sean Connor/Capital News

World Water Day was marked at UBC Okanagan with a First Nations Gathering-of-Waters ceremony and dire warnings about what we are doing to a precious life-sustaining resource.

World Water Day has been observed around the world every March 22 since it was first declared by the UN in 1993.

UBCO held its ceremony yesterday because the actual day fell during the long weekend. The Gathering-of-Waters ceremony was led by the Syilx (Okanagan) Knowledge Keepers who drummed and sang songs of prayer.

Then they, and members of the public, collected small amounts of water in a container.

The samples came from different bodies of water important to each contributor.

The water was taken away to be blessed by First Nations elders this morning at sunrise.

Knowledge Keeper Herman Edwards addressed the crowd of about 50 people, including Kelowna and Lake Country Mayors Sharon Shephard and James Baker.

He warned about the dangers of turning water into a commodity.

âWhen water is taken and processedâ¦and put into bottlesâ¦that water, to us as Okanagan people, has no spirit, no life-force. It has been put through a process to take the life-force out of it,â he said with the help of UBCO faculty member Jeanette Armstrong, who translated his words from the Nylsilxcen (Okanagan) language into English.

âItâs through that profit motive that the waters are now at riskâ¦because thereâs hurry and thereâs bustle and thereâs development thatâs going on, a lot of things go into the water systems like the toxins that come from the fertilizers that fertilize agriculture.â

After the ceremony, UBCO assistant professor of anthropology John Wagner said members of the Okanagan Nation are more sensitive to changes in the environment than the rest of us.

âBecause theyâre out there in the places where they gather medicine plants, and the places where the berries grow and the places the animals they hunt traditionally live,â Wagner said.

âNot many of the rest of us see those parts of our environment with the same eyes as they do.

âWhat the rest of us have to worry about is are we going to turn Okanagan Lake into some kind of polluted, undrinkable body of water.â

He added that the rampant pace of development in the valley is endangering the water needed to sustain the people who live here.

âThere are so many contaminants getting into that lake that we have no real ability to measure, detect or get out of there,â Wagner said.

Organic farmers Joe and Jessica Klein attended the ceremony, bringing water from their Peachland property.

âWe have a small creek that supplies our farm that is endangered by the Crystal Mountain development and offered water from that creek for the ceremony and offered our prayers, for not only that creek but all of the water that sustains us in the Okanagan and that unfortunately is being pretty badly abused,â said Joe Klein.

Wagner expressed hope that as awareness of water issues in the Okanagan increases, so too will participation in World Water Day.

âWhat Iâm really hoping is that this will go valley-wide eventually,â he said. âIâm hoping celebrating water will become an integral part of the festivals and celebrations we have here in the Okanagan.

In connection with this yearâs World Water Day celebrations, the Okanagan Basin Water Board is hosting a panel discussion on water quality Thursday, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., on board the Fintry Queen.

anieoczym@kelownacapnews.com

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Profit motive for water a dangerous path

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