A New Kind of Water War

I’m used to water wars. I’m a California girl. Worse yet, I’m a Los Angeles girl. We get water from wherever we can find it. We have to because we are in a state of perpetual drought. What once appeared to be a nuisance every few years is now becoming a way of life. The Los Angeles water crisis causes strife between us and our neighbors. The need for water has threatened the ecosystem at Mono Lake and any other water sources within hundreds of miles.


I’m not a water expert and it would take time to research the entire history of the Los Angeles water war. You would likely be pretty bored reading it so let’s leave it this: Los Angeles doesn’t have enough water and must be creative in its ways to quench it’s thirst for the crystal clear liquid gold that sustains its life.


There are some counties that are recycling toilet water and making it into drinking water – yuck! Even as this is done it’s common to see people hosing down their driveways to rid the dirt and dust that may come into their homes. What are they thinking? Water rationing is imposed, but many people still don’t understand the urgency of the problem. People become outraged because their green lawns are turning various shades of brown. Really? This is a picture of just one of my neighbor's homes below me taken after the 2008 Slide Fire.




What happens when the ecosystem becomes unbalanced? Why should we care? Well, over the years the trees have become increasingly dense in the San Bernardino Mountains. The drought has caused many of the trees to be less healthy. Bark Beetles have attacked the trees and literally killed thousands and thousands of them. When the Santa Ana winds kick up, whether it’s a consequence of nature or manmade, fire season is inevitable. I don’t remember California having a bad fire season every year….it’s only been in the past few years. It’s almost too frightening to think about and I'm way to the left of this subject.


Enough about the Los Angeles water problem. Fast forward to Saint Lucia. The amount of water does not seem to be the issue. The issue is how to get the water traveling through the pipes and out of the faucets. Without going into another long drawn out research project, the bottom line is that the pipes are in poor condition and the country doesn’t have money to fix them. They are looking at privatization.


The country’s water system is fragile, pipes break often and many times we don’t have running water. Other times workers must work on the system and shut off the water, giving no advance notice to anyone. People have storage tanks outside their homes filled with water and/or buckets filled with water inside their homes. It’s a matter of expectation. They have learned to be patient and live with their own private water war. I’ve never been without water in Los Angeles, unless on a very rare occasion they give advance notice of dates and times the water will be off for some unusual repair.


Turn on last night’s evening news. Oops, here’s another kind of water war.

The worker’s at the country water facility WASCO are unhappy and striking. Half the island does not have any water. They don’t know how long the strike will last or how long people will be without water. Thousands of people are going about their daily routines without water. The story here is this: if Los Angeles residents went 10 minutes without water, backlash would be immediate. I’ve heard some complaints in Saint Lucia, but nothing close to the next riot I would expect in Los Angeles.

It’s a curious thing. Like I said, it’s a matter of expectation.