BLOG: The Blame Game or The Illusive Culprit

by Jane Griffin, Groundwater Foundation President

Is it human nature to always look around us for someone else to blame? There's a lot of research that fully explores the blame game, but each of us has our own experiences. It happens in every situation, including issues surrounding groundwater. In the case of groundwater contamination, it is easy to point to one source and put all of the blame on it. But, that is too simple and, honestly, just not fair.  Let’s explore this a little further through one of the hottest topics: the pipeline. (First, a side note: I find it ironic that it is referred to as “the pipeline” when there are around 22,000 miles of pipelines under our feet.)

Back to the topic at hand: the blame game. If you listen to soundbites and only read headlines you could easily believe that the fate of our aquifer depends on one pipeline. As I mentioned, that is simply not right, nor fair. This is one potential source of contamination that is easy to point to. 

Now let’s look at two words from the sentence above: source and point. If you dive a little deeper into groundwater contamination, both of these words are super important, and there is a third one that is important too: non. Putting them together we have point source contamination and non-point source contamination. Point source contamination comes from a precise point, like a pipeline or factory. Non-point source contamination is trickier - you cannot simply point at. It generally results from runoff. As the runoff moves across the land's surface it picks up and carries with it natural and human-made pollutants, which ultimately end up in surface or groundwater.  

Non-point source contamination could be considered the illusive culprit; the reality is, it plays a huge role in the fate of our aquifer. Instead of pointing our fingers at one potential threat, let's follow the backward trail of that illusive threat and trace where contaminants were picked up. The scary part of following that trail is that we might just end up pointing at ourselves if we realize the runoff picked up contaminants as it passed our home or business.

We all contribute to groundwater contamination. Let’s focus on what we can each do better personally, and then let’s bring that to our neighborhood, work place, children’s school, or relative’s farm, and let’s get ahead of that illusive culprit!

BLOG: The Holy River

by Sara Brock, The Groundwater Foundation

My friend and guide,
Praveen, in Pashupatinath

Nepal is a very spiritual country.  As I walked the cold, crowded streets in January, I saw little shrines dotting the streets, often smeared with a dye made of semi-crushed flower petals in bright red and yellow hues. Larger Hindu temples, the ones the massive 2015 earthquake missed, stood tall and ornate. Among the grandest of these temples, and certainly the most important temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is Pashupatinath (Pa-shoo-pa-tea-not), located on the banks of the holy Bagmati River in the Kathmandu Valley.

Shiva is the Hindu Supreme Being of creation, destruction, and transformation. Believers come to Pashupatinath to pray and help their deceased relatives achieve nirvana by cremating the bodies in a special ritual beside the river. Once the ritual is complete, the ashes are brushed into the Bagmati River which is believed to have the power to purify, ensuring that the spirit is fully released from the body.  

These rituals are performed every day of the year from sun up to sun down. Families bring their dead from thousands of miles away, some even from India, to take part in this special ritual. The air is thick with ash and oil. My friends and I sat and sneezed out black mucus, watching as more and more ashes were pushed into the river. On top of this, the water continues to flow slowly through the city, used upstream and downstream for drinking, bathing, irrigation, and dumping trash and untreated sewage¹.

Women basket-fishing from the river.

It seems counterintuitive to use a holy river with little regard to environmental or health concerns and indeed; Nepali citizens are starting to recognize and react to the hazards of indiscriminant disposal. However, for centuries, the river had provided clean, accessible water to the dry and mountainous region. The Kathmandu Valley was a resource hub and quickly drew a large population along the Bagmati’s banks. Hindus and Buddhists alike worshipped the river, sourced from a trinity of headwaters from the Himalaya and Green Mountain Ranges to the north and seasonal monsoons. 

In the 70s, a huge spike in urbanization driven by economic opportunity caused Kathmandu to quickly develop the infrastructure necessary to support the population surge². Unfortunately, the city skipped over many steps that have since negatively affected public and environmental health, like sanitary disposal of human and industrial waste. With more and more people to provide resources for, the government focused on source augmentation rather than sewage transportation and treatment systems. However, thanks to increased education and cooperation from world health and environmental organizations, many point source polluters have since been shut down and the Bagmati has gotten a second chance³.

Nepali people may have prioritized their personal and spiritual water needs over the long-term conservation of the Bagmati, but they have never ignored its importance. On Saturdays, the national holy day of rest, a group of about 100 Kathmandu residents gather to pick up and properly dispose of the trash on the riverbank. As it gets progressively cleaner, locals appreciate the symbolic river and take more care to dump their trash in a designated area⁴. The river moves a little more swiftly and is transforming the countryside after the destructive aftermath of the earthquake. So while Pashupatinath continues to cremate the honorable dead and the valley reconstructs, Nepal now has the momentum and hope to restore purity to its holy river.

The earthquake shelters are now shrines of the country's
national pride, love for each other, and restored faith.

Sources
1. Keane, Katrina. “Suitably Modern.” KATRINA KEANE, 13 Apr. 2013, katrinakeane.com/abstract/.
2. Platman, Lauren, "From Holy to Holistic: Working Towards Integrated Management of the Bagmati River Corridor" (2014). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. Paper 1808
3. Bhaduri, Amita. “Living Rivers, Dying Rivers: Bagmati River in Nepal.” India Water Portal, Arghyam Initiative, 1 May 2012, www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/living-rivers-dying-rivers-bagmati-river-nepal.
4. Jenkins, Clare. “Bagmati River Story.” Kathmandu Post, Ekantipur, 24 June 2016, kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2016-06-24/bagmati-river-story.html.