Water deprivation is a health boundary that bites.
Each day all over the United States people have their water turned off in the ultimate
gun-to-the-head move by water authorities to make people who are struggling to make
ends meet, face death as an alternative to paying their overdue water bill.
Is this a clever turn of a capitalistic
thumb screw (read faucet handle) in the
best interests of compliance? Or is it a
technique as ethically questionable as
waterboarding?
If it's all right to subject a possible
terrorist to a near death experience in
order to make him or her talk, is it all
right to subject an ordinary person who
is short of funds -- for all necessities, not just water -- to an experience which will end
in death if prolonged?
I find myself wondering if children who see these kinds of techniques applied to their
parents, and feel the added stress when their parents "fly off the handle" or swat them
for the least infraction, are more likely to do heartless things or join gangs or use force
against others to entertain themselves, as for instance in bullying.
I find myself wondering whether a culture based on Wall Street, where firing tens of
thousands of workers results in a stock's value going up, and subsequent profits for
the share holders, is one in which ethics remains a salient force.
When the good of the strong, which always rests on all of the people, is enriched by
harm to ordinary people, is that good perilously close to becoming bad? Or is it bad
already, no "becoming" necessary?
surviving without running water because they can’t pay their water bills.
Who are these people who aren't paying their water bills? Some inherited their bills
from previous tenants or owners of their buildings; some faced dire economic
circumstances that made it impossible for them to keep up with rate increases; one is a
72-year-old World War II veteran who was told he had 30 days to pay more than
$3,000 in water bills delayed through a water authority miscalculation.
Overall, between June 2001 and June 2002, 40,752 addresses in the city of Detroit
had their water turned off. (I took this example from a longer article published in Lip
Magazine.)
Here's an example of what I mean, Ice Mountain bottled water, a
brand of Nestle Waters North America, one of the world’s largest
bottled water companies pumped up to 400 gallons a minute for
which it paid the minimal rent, a total of $85 a year on a 99-year
lease — and Nestle made up to $2 million a day.
The other half of the picture is that a four-hour drive away from this
water pumping bonanza is Detroit, one of the country’s most
impoverished cities, where tens of thousands of residents are
The article caught my attention because
only moments earlier I had been looking
for a picture depicting the struggle to get
water and Nestle had this one, which I
thought was great.
Nestle talked about "good practices on
water usage, to make better use of
available water sources, and to protect
these sources adequately for the benefit
of farmers and rural communities." This
was on the page with the image. So
believing this, obviously I was surprised
to find that the sentiments were
apparently tailored to the needs of other countries, or the need to present a good face
on its website. (Because Nestle is a name I associate with my childhood and my
grandparents' home and all things good, I want to see only the image of good.)
I know that although the pumping appeared to be stopped, the
Lip Magazine article reported, "In the fall of 2003, activists
won a victory when Michigan circuit court judge Lawrence
Root issued a sweeping 64-page opinion that accused Nestle
lawyers of lying and catalogued the significant potential
environmental effects of pumping. Root ordered Nestle to
reduce its pumping immediately and to stop all pumping by
December 2003. But Nestle obtained a stay against the
decision pending the outcome of its appeal, and since then they
have continued to pump upwards of 300 gallons a minute from the aquifer."
I want to know what has happened to the vet who was 72, and the people at the
40,752 addresses where water was turned off. Were they helped? Was any
connection made between the huge profits and the suffering of huge numbers of
people for want of the money to pay for water?
I want to know that all is well, however all is not well.
Reporting on water as a human rights issue for
Americans, not people in China or Africa or India,
is a film, The Water Front by Liz Miller, which
premiered in November, 2007 and received an
award from Ecofilms as well as a strong recommendation from Melanie Giard of the
World Water Council, "Water is not only an issue affecting poor countries.
Everywhere in the world, people are facing a diversity of difficulties in accessing
water. And the characters Liz Miller choose to portray in her film are particularly
strong, in their interesting way of facing up the situation, reacting, gathering, getting
involved and fighting together. Covering all water issues, from pricing to privatization
and – above all – the human right to WATER, this film sends a strong message on
the way public participation and action can overcome problems".
Where do you stand on the water question?
12/13/07 Later - My pages have never had
this many visits before. These visits are
primarily for this page. They make me wish I
had written it a lot better.
Someone at pbs suggested I draw attention to
the water problem by getting a wagon, taking
it to a public water source and making a great
show of having to haul my own water.
I replied that having had tetanus I'm physically
unable to do that. Though, I think the problem
is that there isn't public water now, at least not
where I and a lot of other people live.
12/14/07 - It's staggering to realize that a private concern is/was making two million
dollars a day selling and exporting water from an area where the local people suffer a
lack of water.
This is not something that's been on the news. When we hear about Georgia or the
Southwest where I live being affected by drought we are not concomitantly told that
two million dollars worth of water changes hands each day for the sole profit of a few
people.
Isn't that something we should be aware of and thinking about?
I will show you my situation with water so that you can see the water problem more
clearly. And, because of my interest in and continuing study of health I will relate how
the stress of water problems takes a bite out of health.
When my water was turned off, I had just finished working on my appeal to get my
condo back, which was foreclosed and sold without due process. So, I was already
feeling the effects of stress when the City employee knocked on my door and said he
was going to turn off my water unless I paid either all of $485 or $163.
I asked for phone numbers to call because of how little money I have. In total at the
time I had about $300 and it wasn't all at my bank. When I called the numbers I
requested and was given two days to transfer enough to pay $163.
Some hours later I was thirsty and went to get a drink but the water was running so
strangely that I watched it trying to figure out what was wrong instead of collecting
any. That's because of my infuriating brain injury. I didn't snap that my water had
been shut off because they'd said I could have two days, but then none of my faucets
had water so I knew they must have gone back on their word. I didn't get my drink.
I immediately began writing emails. Notice the effect of deprivation of water:
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:42 PM
I just got my corrected revised brief in the mail yesterday and was going to
go to bed when the city came to shut off my water.
Over the weekend I was going to bring in a plant, but I hurt my back and
now all my muscles feel the way they did when I first got tetanus and I can
barely move and it's very painful.
Kathy Valdez gave me till Friday to get $163.00, and she said she doesn't
care if I don't have water, they shut people off every day, she said.
I couldn't see how my bill could be $60 a month because I can't take baths
or showers without hot water. So I think they are doing something tricky.
I need help.
Unless of course people are supposed to die and that's the whole point.
I would not have these problems if my condo had not been built over a privy
pit. I got tetanus because I couldn't feel my feet properly because of the
nerve damage.
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 5:04 PM
I DON'T HAVE ANY WATER RIGHT NOW -- SHE SAID SHE'D GIVE
ME TO FRIDAY --- WAHT AM I GOING TO DO WITHOUT
WATER?????????
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:26 PM
I am so thirsty and my pain pills are supposed to be taken with a lot of water
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:35 AM
Paain so much worse today. Need water to takew ith Ibuprofen tto kill pain.
I hae a disability. I agreed to pay on friday. Ineeded time to get the money.
I need water.
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:30 PM
Also, I'm dizzy. I don't know if that's from the pain, not taking pain killers
when i don't have a lot of water and they are supposed to be taken with a lot
o fwater.
I think three days without water, till my money transfers, is going to be hard
on my health.
I guess that doesn't matter to the City of Santa Fe, or New Mexico.
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:49 AM
pain worse without pian killres that need water for tkaing them
I couldnt' baarlley stand long enought to feed the gold fish., Pains much
worse. I nee dawater. I laso need water to wash my aands. who can bring me
some ewater?
I need water. I'm thristy and I can't think i'm so thirsty. this is making my
sidablity waorse. I nee d water.
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:47 AM
water noixre
I thnnnw,m waater back
fnosw3e sno3e nosei snoise stoped afreid only for minute.
could bqdrly get up amwer door
not h3wther
hediwn tihirn it back on
but qoculn't ge tuyup step againwt ot get insieme.
drank wqrm so water
hoepw bettter sone
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 8:54 AM
iateriewnmd direhn dtrired/ tow renitrew a message
don'et wesee it'
beter wqhoe hpeater afreee water
drnnk mabye takes awhilte to fel better.
anaaa pain has towtkea kkillers/
From: Aging and Long Term Services Department
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 8:12 AM
Bobbette will purchase some bottled water for you and bring it over to you.
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 2:26 PM
I have aa ddisabliety - i hae the monetyh to pay but no owne while help me
wherww is sf ada coraro dor cor cor coordinator?
I weill pitu it iwn the mail tomreooa since nowone was able to iedamenti inda
idnaen idenatify identify an ADA coordiangg=or coordainatgor so s
coordinator for Satn Santa Fe.
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 3:38 PM
Franciss fromthw water just `alled me andx she insisted I go tteht the check
number now even though I'm in such bad pain.
When ti rea her the number of the amount she said ti was supppsoed to be
$400. That Valodex perxson said $163 and I can't reemmber the c`ents. So
I sent 164.
What his thisst why toroture me?
Why"?
I had a drink of
water but my
ability to write
did not go back
to normal.
My water was off for about a day, just one day, yet I am not recovered. For instance,
I have an infection in my jaw around some old dental implants, and without being able
to take the vitamin C to keep it in check till I can have the surgery, the infection flared
up, with pain, swelling, and a lot of hair loss. Now, over two months later my hair loss
is reduced, but by no means has it halted.
Because this was my experience, I am sure that people who have their water turned
off have their health affected, both mentally and physically.
One question this raises for me, is how a state can take children from a family for
things that endanger the children, and then at the same time allow something as
endangering as deprivation of water.
Deprivation of water is pretty universally considered a torture technique.
The City turned
my water back
on.
Days later I had
not recovered
and I never
seemed thirsty.
With a brain
injury it's hard to
remember things,
even eating and
drinking, so it
was hard to get
back to drinking
adequate water.
I was also
extremely
constipated.
12/14/07 Later - Once again the number of
people looking at this page humbles me and
again I wish I had written better.
For instance, while I showed how being
without water for a day affected my typing I
didn't discuss the relationship between stress
and nerve damage.
Some stress is actually good for us. It's been
humorously said that mice who are chased by
cats live longer than mice not chased by cats.
(presumably assuming they aren't caught.)
Stress we can beat, even when a lot of fast steps are needed, is the kind that makes
us feel good in the end: we're all happy to have conquered it, or outrun it, or in some
way survived.
But a stress which immobilizes us, corners us, or in some other way makes us feel
helpless burns out our nerves just the least little bit. Elissa Epel, who was able to
show this in 2005, said in an interview, "We were quite taken aback to realize that
stress had effects visible at the intracellular level." Most telling of all, and pertinent to
the point I want to make here, she went on to say, "Cell aging, in turn, is a risk factor
for later disease. This new work quantifies a physiological price to feeling highly
stressed. "
I know from having low vitamin B12, which is common, and having regular B12 tests
and keeping a "Time Line" at the suggestion of my neurologist, that when I was
particularly stressed my B12 level would drop hundreds of points. My neurologist
told me to have extra B12 shots at those times, but he didn't say and I didn't know
how much replacement B12 was needed to handle the depletions caused by stress.
When people who aren't aware of this are threatened and deprived of water in a
situation where they don't have the money or means to make the money to pay for
essential water, their health is, necessarily, going to deteriorate.
What I mean is that they are going to suffer the physical effects of water deprivation
AND the effects of the stress associated with such a serious threat to their lives
against which they may be or feel impotent.
For example, if they have diabetes to start with, water deprivation and the related
stress is likely to increase the amount of pain and numbness from peripheral
neuropathy, and, diabetic peripheral neuropathy causes amputations.
Methylcobalamin, the active form of B12, would help offset damage from the stress,
but most older people don't use the internet and don't know about it, and most
doctors prescribe drugs with no mention of underlying vitamin deficiencies.
On the other hand, I know about methylcobalamin and I took a lot extra to help me
deal with the water deprivation and stress, and I STILL was affected for months.
That being true, I have to wonder how any candidates for government offices can talk
about health care and insurance and ignore underlying causes of ill health like water
deprivation and profiting from water sales at the expense of health.
12/16/07 - I could not work on this
yesterday. I felt as if Salvador Dali's
painting, Exploding Head, was happening
to me because of how much there is to
this issue.
I found that on some forums people
wanted to discuss this in terms of Global
Warming, and how it's a "good thing"
people are having their water turned off
because it teaches the lesson of what is
coming with Global Warming. That's a
very head ache making view.
Turning people's water off and depriving
them of water is not a climate change
issue, it is an issue involving profit vs
ethics and it certainly calls into question
America's unchecked system of capitalism
wherein two men have amassed most of
the capital, that is, Bill Gates and Warren
Buffet.
Looking back in time, between 1900 and
1940 urban death rates were reduced 15%
by the introduction of chlorination and
water filtration.
David Cutler and Grant Miller, of Harvard, wrote in their paper, Clean Water's
Historic Effect on U.S. Mortality Rates that having clean water cut three-quarters of
U.S.infant mortality and two-thirds of child mortality. Those are the most rapid health
improvements in U.S. history.
Before water filtration, city dwelling Americans died at rates 30 percent higher than
those of Americans living in the country. This came to be known as the "urban
penalty." In the late 1800s, infant mortality was 140 percent higher in cities than in the
country and child mortality was 94 percent higher.
Cutler and Miller examined death rates before and after the introduction of clean
water, compared them to cities that had not initiated water treatment, and were able to
conclude that clean water was largely responsible for eliminating the urban penalty.
The obvious question this raises is: If cleaning people's water reduces deaths, then
how much does depriving people of water increase the number of deaths?
And, this brings me to what I had wanted to say in the beginning, "While there are
countries where carrying water to meet ones needs, in order to sustain life, is
commonplace, we in the United States have come to rely on pipes carrying water to
us. We may or may not have hot, as well as cold water, but overall we generally have
water provided by a system of pipes if we live in a city. In the country we may have
our own well, and that is entirely aside from the questions I want to raise here."
The first question is: Do we agree that water is necessary for life?
The second question is: Do we agree that cities require large numbers of people in
order to exist, and that providing for the well being of those people is a duty?
The U.S. Census Bureau 2007 Statistical Abstract does not list water as a natural
resource.
