A few weeks ago, we woke up on Denison’s campus to a water warning. A water line had broken in the village of Granville and we were told to not drink the water. Overnight the campus became plastered with posters saying: Boil Advisory, do not drink the water! The first twenty-four hours flew by with barely a change in my schedule, only the growing number of plastic water bottles in my backpack really caught my notice. It wasn’t until the next few days limped along without clean water that its absence in my life really started to make itself known. The student union began running out of bottled water, showers became difficult, and water had to be boiled for the simplest of things like washing the dishes.
It was annoying and maddening. This fundamental, essential aspect of life was no longer easily accessible. This seemed inexcusable and unacceptable. Lucky for us, just days later the water line was fixed, and the boil warning lifted. We all returned to our lives, on the whole unscarred by the experience, and dare I say indifferent in the end.
If anything, this experience made me think about the privileges of my life and in turn consider those things I take advantage of. I was only minorly inconvenienced by the inaccessibility of water for a few days while others have suffered much more. Isn’t there that old saying that you need to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes to understand them? And isn’t it also true that the further your situation is removed from that of another’s the quicker you forget about it? At the very least this seems to be the case for me. I won’t say the cliché that my eyes were opened by this experience, because I did have peripheral knowledge of other water crises. Residents of Flint, Michigan went without access to clean water for three years and even to this day actively feel the consequences in their daily lives. Or we could go further afield and talk about the thousands in Africa that have never had access to clean water. My point is that on the most basic level I could say that I was aware of water crises in the world. I knew there were problems, I had watched the documentaries, participated in the various fundraisers and relief campaigns. It is a whole other level of understanding to have, in my own minor way, to have experienced something similar. So here’s to lessons learned and to taking a more active role in both appreciating and being aware of my privilege.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/index.html