Sunday Poem: “Freshwater”

 

It was 1992

when the UN designated March 22 as

World Water Day.

 

Recognising those who face

water scarcity.

 

Things got worse since.

 

From California to the Middle East to South Asia,

groundwater reservoirs are depleting.

 

Droughts. Over-pumping.

 

Two billion live in river basins

where use exceeds recharge.

 

Streams dry up.

Lakes slowly die.

Swaths of countryside

reduced to desert.

Millions move to shanty towns

for loss of farmland.

 

Those who can,

desalinate sea water.

 

Meanwhile in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and B.C.,

communities stack sandbags, calling in the

military.

 

(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)

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