At the Watershed

In the US the term watershed is equivalent to the expression water catchment used in Australia and elsewhere. Watershed is also a term used metaphorically or figuratively to indicate a dividing line - a watershed issue - a line of division.

The word watershed came into use around the beginning of the 19th century. Then it represented the boundary between two river systems. It also referred to the surrounding hills and ridges and indicated the side of the hill or ridge where the rain fell and the water flowed. But in the US it has a wider meaning and refers to the wider river catchment, or river valley, that 'catches' the water drawing it towards the river.

Political editor from the Australian Newspaper, Dennis Shanahan(2006), put the issue quite differently when speaking about Australia's water crisis and water shortage.

'...at the heart of this crisis of water management is a complex web of conflicting and warring political and governmental interests, where states such as South Australia suffer at the mouth of the Murray while Queensland allows huge water harvesting for cotton at the head of the Darling system, and the Federal Government funds water initiatives without any power to force action.'

Water sources have become a political and ecological watershed.

Using the term watershed in its figurative sense, let's look at the watershed issue of logging the water catch-ments. The water or hydrological cycle is very clear, especially in the drawings of the cycle from primary school science classes. The rain is shown as falling onto the side of the hill which is treed or forested. The trees and land catch the water, channelling it to the ground water and eventually to the creeks, tributaries and flowing water.

A New Zealand report by Haikai Tane (2004) states that: 'Australia and New Zealand are caught in an intractable cultural dilemma.' The report declares that the continued industrialisation of water catchments for timber as well as surrounding development has 'led local communities in watershed catchments ... to believe that the long term degradation of watershed catchments is normal and natural. The degradation of watershed catchments in Australia and New Zealand will continue unabated so long as communities impose activities and infrastructure that destroys ecostructure.'

The issue is one of division and values, economic versus ecological, aesthetic versus industrial, spiritual versus profitability and resource use. Tane write 'that key cosmic roles have reversed, for industrial society sets goals like Gods, and Nature becomes its maid and servant.' This is so reminiscent of the issues raised in Carolyn Merchant's 1980 ground-breaking work, The Death of Nature as well as Val Plumwood's Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1993).

Leading Australian water researcher Professor Peter Cullen makes the issue clear: 'Catchment land use is an important driver of river health, and river health seems commonly to be impaired when agricultural activities cover more than 30 per cent of a catchment area; although distance from the river and the health of the riparian vegetation can mediate these effects. The removal of native vegetation can markedly alter the hydrologic behaviour of a catchment.'

'As trees are removed, runoff commonly increases, as does the amount of water flowing below the root zone and entering groundwater, and this may lead to consequent waterlogging and salinity, although there may be a lag of 20 to 50 years before these impacts are obvious.'

'River and wetland health is assisted if the connections between a river channel and its floodplain and wetlands are maintained, allowing recovery from stress events. Deeper pools and wetlands may be important refuges that allow organisms to survive extreme high or low flow events. This is called resilience: the capacity to recover. The riparian zone has a profound impact on stream ecosystem processes.'

Re-making wetlands and deep pools, developing programs aimed at ecological resilience, regeneration of riparian zones, removal of noxious weed species and revitalization of native plant species - it seems all these things can help on the eco-front, but on the socio-political front, Haikai Tane declares we need a deeper understanding and a regeneration and revitalization of awareness, values and actions.

'What post-industrial society urgently needs is a new paradigm for understanding watershed catchments based on the integrity and connectivity of catchment habitats and landscape ecosystems.'

References
Cullen P, 2007, The Ecological Challenge of Water Reform, ATSE Focus, 145, http://www.atse.org.au/index.php?sectionid=1007
Merchant C, 1980, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, San Francisco, Haper and Row.
Plumwood V, 1993, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, New York: Routledge.
Shanahan D, 2006, A Watershed on the Water Front, The Australian, Sept 26, 2006.
Tane H, 2004, Catchment Habitats and Landscape Ecosystems, Watershed Systems Ltd,Center for Catchment Ecology, http://watershed.net.nz/fpeandwm.htm

The Edge-iness of Rain

The rain continues to tumble. Sleeting down. Heavy. Fast. Thick. So much water has fallen in the past few weeks that the once much sought-after rain has also delivered floods, anxieties and severe loss to places that a such a short time ago were parched. The dams in SE Queensland that supply water to homes and industries are filling slowly, but even after all this rain, one of the major dams is still only 18.03 per cent full. The rivers are thirsty. They have a lot of catching up to do.

The Queensland Water Commission states: 'Understanding our water cycle is critical to ensuring that we manage our water resources.'

Knowledge of the intricacies of the water cycle needs to leap out of the primary school science lesson and into an imaginative and innovative campaign aimed at raising awareness and understanding of the beauty of the water system as the hilltop trees catch the rain and channel it through water-brimming rivers to the ocean, where through evaporation the water rises to the clouds, plumps them with watery greyness which sheds more life-bringing rain back into the system. Continuously. The movement of the water cycle connecting nature and human.

Evaporation. Transpiration. Respiration. Inspiration.

One place of inspiration where the water cycle plays centre stage is the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens children's garden. We walked sheltered from the very light rain beneath the rainforest canopy and followed the interactive trail as it snaked its way along the rushing creek. Lizards darted out between the stones, water dripped from the overhead branches and signs painted on the pathway directed us to look harder, listen deeper, feel and wonder.

This magical trail was dotted with evocative artworks - the giant water dragon sculpture in the pond was surrounded by living water dragons, one perched on its big tail; a whimsical orange snake made from an old car muffler wound around a branch digesting its mufflery meal, and gloriously-crafted dragonflies adorned the bridge across the pond like exquisite sentinels.

Green was abundant. Flourishing. Bursting as if the plants were growing right before our eyes. And they were.

We watched as tiny native bees crafted their delicious-tasting honey in the knotty trunk of an old eucalypt and listened to the ringing of birdsong and the rhythms of cascading waters. The trees revelled in the rain. They understood intimately the significance of the water cycle of which they are a central feature. The sources of water are not only 'our water resources'. They are a shared resource between human and nature.

Water Running Out

On the Water Conserve portal I found this highly disturbing post from Dr Glenn Barry. He cites the United Nations' Millennium Project as saying the world's water is running out as there are 'no more rivers to take water from'. This is also the outcome as displayed by the hydrological cycle, flowing from sea to sky, from fresh to salt. The water is held within this cycle; it moves from rain to sleet and snow; it runs through rivers to oceans and back to rain, sleet and snow. Looking at the river in Brisbane it's hard to fathom that the flow could ever cease. In the bigger picture the river is playing its vital role in sustaining the viabilty and vitality of ecosystem services.

I remember being in Yirrkala in Northeast Arnhemland a few years ago and going to watch a class at the local community school about the water cycle. The Yolngu children were first taught by the non-Aboriginal teacher in English, and in a western scientific paradigm about the watery interconnections. Then we climbed into the school bus and went to visit an elder couple who taught the children the manikay or sacred songs about the flourishing of weather and the movement of waters. This is an example of the 'both ways' education in operation; it is an inspirational approach that parallels the practical psycho-philosophical worldview that pervades this north Australian community.

Sitting on the beach the women, teachers at the school, shared their knowledge about how the exchange of salt and fresh water through the movement of the tides acts as a life-affirming and vital metaphor for living and sharing in this community. The metaphor of 'ganma' sits within the flowing waters as a foundational principle. It refers to the swirling of river and ocean flows that meet and merge in the tidal lagoon.

In metaphorical terms, ganma refers to the interlinking of western and indigenous knowledge systems where the interflowing sea water represents western knowledge, and the outerflowing river-land water represents indigenous knowledge. The waters move, flow over, overflow together, enjoined as one. This concept represents a deeper understanding, a deeper truth, where the place of interconnecting waters is likened to the place of interconnecting peoples, to the flowing together of people with country.

In outlining the significance of ganma Hughes (2000) writes: 'Ganma is an Indigenous form of dialectical praxis for working both-ways, with Indigenous and Western cultures. Ganma does two things. It takes elements of Western culture and makes them Aboriginal, and it provides a pattern for interaction and dialogue that respects the integrity of both cultures.'

Both ways is the guiding principle for what could be. It links. It brings together. It acts. It reconciles. It flows as one.

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References:
Hughes I, 2000, Ganma: Indigenous Knowledge for Reconciliation and Community Action, Action Research E-Reports, 14, http://www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/arow/arer/014.htm

Water Cycle & World Environment Day

Today is a global celebration for the planet, for raising awareness of climate change, of melting polar ice and vanishing polar bears. A day to be even more aware of the scarcity of water on this, the dryest of continents.

Brisbane's water storages are rapidly running out of water. There is only about 18 percent of water remaining for the city. The government is trying to conserve this precious resource by limiting the length of time for showers and the number of days and hours that gardens can be watered. Is this enough? It is also encouraging residents to install water tanks, grey water systems, and solar hot water. This is such a positive step but it took a potential crisis for action to be taken.

I have often thought that we need a day for honouring the Water Cycle. This week marks World Environment Day (June 5) and World Ocean Day (June 8) and both are connected through the water or hydrological cycle. Water Cycle Day would be a day set aside for revering the connectedness between salt and fresh water, between ocean and rivers, between land, sea and sky. It would pay homage to the process that brings life giving rain.

Tonight the rain is pouring down outside, one of the first bouts of rain in the few months I have lived here. The skies had been grey all day and there was a promise of rain. In fact many days have been like this. Grey clouds, a whiff of dampness, but then the sun comes out and chases the rain away. Not tonight. The ground is thirsty and slurps up the water voraciously, flowing into the drains, the creek, the river and the ocean. The ocean is the grand storehouse for the earth's water supply, holding around 96.5 percent of all the water on the planet.

Water is also flowing in the sky, evaporating and condensing, shaping and reshaping cloud formations made up of tiny water droplets. When we were children we spent hours lying on our backs looking up at the sky telling stories of the images we could see in the swirl and dance of the water vapour. Without realising we were worshipping the sacred process of the movement of water from land to sea and back again.

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