Don't Call Me "Garbage"

This is not a fictional movie but a true story.

Cateura in Paraguay is one of the poorest slums in Latin America. About 2,500 families live here with their small house next to the huge garbage dump; most of the residents have no electricity, drinking water is polluted, kids are wandering between dropping out of school, boken family, crimes and drugs.

About 1,500 tons of garbage delivered here everyday. The major income of the villagers relies on scavenging; they search for recyclable materials in the garbage dump, Nicolás Gómez is one of them.

Another Kind of Musical Instruments

One day, as Nicolás found an old, broken violin in the garbage dump, change is in the air for the ordinary slum.

Nicolás showed the broken violin to Favio Chávez in the village. Favio is a foreign Environmental Engineer who came to Cateura for a recycling project. As years passed, Favio has built friendship with the local residents. Favio has been planning to teach music to the kids in the village, however, in that poor & barren community, a violin is more expensive than a house.

Nicolás & Favio thought of scrapping various types of used & broken stuffs from the garbage dump into musical instruments. They even started to dream about the birth of a “Recycled Orchestra”.

Through the crafty hands of Nicolás, oil barrel & kitchen utensils became a “cello”, water pipe & spoons turned into a “flute”, crate & marmalade tin made into “guitar”…… Each instrument is a unique piece.

Kids in the village love these “Garbage Instruments” made by uncle Nicolás; they came to the musical class irregardless of sunny or rainy days. Under the patient instruction by teacher Favio, sweet-sounding music started to flow from these unusual musical instruments……

Garbage Turned Instruments, Kids Turned Orchestra

After 4 years of experiment, Nicolás & Favio have figured out the knack. They know which recycled materials are best made into certain types of musical instruments; the tune of their instruments is getting finer and more precise.

The kids were not only learning to play musical instruments from teacher Favio, they have also learned from uncle Nicolás making instruments with recycled materials. Up to date there are more than 200 kids benefited from this project.

After several years of cultivating, the dream of Nicolás & Favio, “Recycled Orchestra”, is gradually becoming a reality.

The public started to notice the miracle happening in this village. Emmy Award nominated director Graham Townsley made the story of “Recycled Orchestra” into a documentary called “Landfill Harmonic”.

Over the year, “Recycled Orchestra” led by teacher Favio has started to travel internationally. They played at countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Columbia, Arizona in the United States, Germany……and received good responses.

The Honor for the Garbage Village

Teacher Favio said in “Landfill Harmonic”, “People realize that we shouldn't throw away trash carelessly, and we shouldn't throw away people either.”

In the movie, Juan Manuel Chavez , a shy 18 years-old boy, played the “Prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1” with a cello made of used oil barrel & broken kitchen utensils --- If you listen with eyes closed, it sounded not much different from an expensive cello.

15 years-old girl Ada Rios said, “When I play the violin I feel transported to a beautiful place --- clear sky, green field, no garbage, no pollution……”

During the “60 Minutes”, United States TV documentary, Ada’s grandmother Mirian Rios said, “I would say it's a blessing from God. People used to humiliate us and call us ‘trash pickers’; today they are more civilized and call us the ‘recyclers’. So I feel that this is a reward from God that our children who come from this place can play beautiful music in this way.”

The kids who used to be ignored & forgotten by the world, they are now standing on the stage of the world, courageously plying the symphonies of music masters.

The kids from Cateura originally can’t escape the fate of “joining gasters, becoming drug dealers”. However, as the “garbage” from Cateura were reclaimed & made into musical instruments, the kids from Cateura were also shaped into world class orchestra, and have found the meaning & purpose of their lives. As a result, not only the whole community was transformed, other corners on earth were also being influenced……

Misplaced Resources

I believe there’s no such vocabulary as “garbage” in God’s dictionary.

If man were wiling to cherish & make good use of every natural resource created by God, the resources are actually enough to supply our needs forever, which is the common word “sustainable” we have been mentioning now-a-day.

However, somehow along the way, mankind has invented “throw away” culture --- unreasonable & madly discarding.

Anne Leonard, the environmental pioneer from United States said in her book “The Story of Stuff”, “We engage in non-stop buying, non-stop throwing, but we do not realize our health and environment have been greatly damaged during the process.”

What happen to the stuffs after being discarded? In the documentary “Trashed”, starring Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons, mentioned that, “‘Garbage’ if aren’t buried at landfills forever, they’ll be burned in the incinerators, or floating away to oceans --- non of these places should be the destinations for ‘garbage’.”

If we were to start looking at “garbage” from the right point of view, we will discover that these so called “garbage”, are actually “misplaced resources”.

Being Honored together with the Land

The relationship between man & land is far deeper that we could ever imagine.

As Genesis 1:28 and Psalms 8:6 in the Bible say, God commanded man to take good care of animals in the field, birds in the sky, fish in the sea --- That was actually a commandment attached with blessings, because the goodwill of God during creation was that: Man will take good care of the land, and the land will also function, provide & produce for man.

When man reaffirm the value of “garbage”, man will also find their self-value.

Just like the “Recycled Orchestra” from Cateura --- Man & land are mutually blessing each other, and shining brightly together in the hand of the Creator……

HoeyTee

( Chinese version was published in the “Shepherd” section of Nanyang Siang Pau on 2014.1.12 )

Youtube short films:

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXynrsrTKbI

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJxxdQox7n0

Website:

www.landfillharmonicmovie.com

别叫我垃圾

这不是编造的影片，而是真真实实发生的故事。

巴拉圭的卡特乌拉（Cateura）是拉丁美洲最穷的贫民窟之一。约有2500户住在这里，村民小屋与庞大垃圾堆毗邻，大部份无电流供应，食用水被污染，孩子们在辍学、破碎家庭与罪案毒品中徘徊。

每天约1,500吨垃圾运来这里。村民主要收入靠捡破烂，在垃圾堆当中翻寻可资源回收的东西；尼古拉斯（Nicolás Gómez） 是其中一位。

另类的乐器

一天，尼古拉斯在垃圾堆里发现了一架残旧的小提琴，平凡的贫民窟开始不一样。

尼古拉斯提着破小提琴，带去给村里的法维奥（Favio Chávez）看。法维奥是外地来的环境工程师，在卡特乌拉从事一项资源循环再用的计划。几年下来，与当地居民成为好友，法维奥一直想教导村里的孩子们音乐；可是，在这个穷乡僻壤，一个小提琴比一间屋子还贵。

尼古拉斯和法维奥灵机一动，想到用垃圾堆捡来的各种破旧物品，拼凑改造成乐器。两人更妙想天开，梦想一支“资源回收管弦乐队”（Recycled Orchestra）的诞生。

在尼古拉斯的巧手里，油桶和厨具变成“大提琴”，水管和汤匙化为“长笛”，货箱和果酱锡罐制成“吉他”…… 每一件都是独一无二的杰作。



村里的孩子们，对尼古拉斯叔叔制作出来的“垃圾乐器”爱不释手，风雨不改的来上音乐课。在法维奥老师的耐心调教之下，美妙的乐章开始从这些“另类”的乐器中飘扬出来……

垃圾变乐器，孩子变乐团

经过4年揣磨，尼古拉斯与法维奥抓到诀窍，知道哪一类回收物品最适合制成哪一种乐器。他们所制作的乐器，音质越来越优良与精准。

孩子们不只向法维奥老师学习演奏乐器，也跟尼古拉斯叔叔学习使用回收的旧物品来制作乐器；村里至今已有200多位孩子受惠。

几年辛勤耕耘下来，尼古拉斯和法维奥的梦想：“资源回收管弦乐队”，逐步成真。

外界开始注意到这个村庄的奇迹；包括了艾美奖提名的制片家格里翰（Graham Townsley），他将“资源回收管弦乐队”的故事拍成纪录片“悦耳的垃圾场”（Landfill Harmonic）。

过去1年来，法维奥老师带领的“资源回收管弦乐队”，开始迈向国际，陆续在南美洲的巴西、阿根廷、巴拿马、哥伦比亚、美国的亚利桑那州、德国…..等等国家演奏，佳评如潮。

Plastic: Disposable Product, Permanent Pollution

We engage in non-stop buying, non-stop throwing, but we do not realize our health and environment have been greatly damaged during the process.

--- <The Story of Stuff >

Bad habit of “Dispose After Use”

It has become a natural habit for people to dispose stuffs. However, you may not know that people were not used to dispose stuff in the past. After World War II, merchants started to encourage the use of disposable items in order to promote their plastic products... As of today, almost 50% of plastic raw material is being used to produce disposable products.

Countless of plastic products are being produced and disposed every day. The 'light-weight, strong and durable' features of plastic have caused it to be a disaster after disposed.

Creature Killer

Plastic waste has caused at least 267 types of living creatures injured or dead; Plastic waste has become the main cause of death for about 1,000,000 seabirds and 100,00 sea creatures every year. Albatross for example, approximately 200,000 out of 500,000 Albatross chicks die each year due to their mother bird mistakenly picking plastic waste as food to feed them. Young birds die from starvation because they couldn't consume any food or water with their stomach filled with plastic waste; Some birds swallow the plastic wastes that perforates their stomach or blocks their esophagus, leading to inability to consume food......

Plastic Soup

Ocean is the blue heart of our earth, it is also an important marine habitat. Estimated 725,700,000 kg of plastic items are being dumped into ocean every year! Day after day, the ocean has become a big pot of “Plastic Soup”. Researcher from Japan discovered that particles of plastic will act as a sponge for other toxins such as PCB and BPA in ocean. Plastic waste is consumed by fish and many of these fish will be consumed by humans. Is plastic waste in the ocean eventually coming back to us by entering the food chain? ​

Health Hazards

Many plastic products contain hazardous chemical addictives such as plasticizing agent, filler, dyes, lubricant and many others. High temperatures can cause addictives to leach out of the plastic. DEHP is the commonly use plasticizing agent. Research indicates that DEHP often links to the following illnesses: Tumor, cancer, infertility, hormone disorders, male feminization and genital anomalies.

Cause Flood

In Kota Kinabalu, for example, the usage of plastic products per day has reached 150 tons, which 1/3 is from plastic bags and polystyrene food containers. These plastic waste clog drains, create breeding grounds for mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies and rats; they also cause flood to happen in cities and suburban areas. Environment protection agency has installed several garbage nets in local rivers to collect garbage floating on the rivers. Each garbage net costs RM120,000.

Excessive Waste

Most of the plastic waste will go to landfills, rivers and oceans; we found evidence of “wastages” and “pollution” everywhere from bustling cities to remote villages. In 2012, the first, second and third landfill of Bekenu in East Malaysia were saturated, while the fourth landfill under construction costs around RM 24,000,000. Malaysia government proposed several incinerators to process garbage, are we willing to bear a more polluted air quality?

Consumer Awareness

However, the guilty ones is not plastic, but the human who “use and dispose”.

“Cheap” plastic products brings 'heavy price' of damage to health and ecosystem.

“Convenient” plastic products bring “inconvenient” consequences to health and ecosystem.

Plastic derived from petroleum. We turn this million years old natural resources into something we use for only a few minutes, then we dispose these non-biodegradable waste back to earth. A responsible consumer will consider the cost and consequences of using and disposing these products.

Learn to Reuse

Let us review those “convenient products” which are commonly used in life, but are actually harming the earth during the process of manufacturing and using, are they necessities?

--- Li Wei-Wen (The Society of Wilderness,Taiwan)

Bring Your Own Bottle – A Must

I wish I could put it mildly, but I have no choice but to say it frankly: “No more bottled water, please.”

Banning the sales of bottled water has become a growing trend globally; Many environmental organizations and cities have joined in. Few years ago, the mayors of New York City, San Francisco and Salt Lake City have jointly declared their stand on “Boycott the Bottled Water”; More than 100 cities voted to ban bottled water; Over 90 universities have already or proposed to ban the sales of bottled water on campus.

Most of the bottled water companies are unwilling to disclose their sources of bottled water, treatment process and purity level of water. Labels of bottled water are often printed with “Nature” name or logo, attempting to confuse consumers that their water source is pure spring water. In fact, the source of nearly half of the brands are just faucet water, but consumers have to pay 2000 times of the price of their house's faucet water in order to purchase the bottled water.

It was found that many of the bottled waters are no better than tap water in terms of sanitation; Some even contains 38 types of pollutants or bacteria and 8 types of chemical substances. Bottled waters are usually stored for some times, and the bottles are exposed to heat during delivery, therefore heavy metals, chemical toxins, carcinogens (antimony, phthalates, plasticizers, estrogen, nitrite…...) will be released into the water and then into the body of drinkers.

Scientists from the Pacific Institute had estimated that 50 million barrels of petroleum have been used globally to produce plastic bottles of the bottled water every year (the energy and water being consumed during the process of manufacturing, delivery and sales are not included yet).

The “Corporate Accountability International” considers bottled water as a product of ‘corporate abuse’, which drive public water resources into private hands. Some bottled water manufacturers extract underground water from others’ lands, bottle it and sell to ignorant consumers. Consequences of profitability come with depleted underground water source, damaged rivers and lakes, ecosystem, agriculture……

* Tips for everyone：

Buy either a stainless steel, ceramic, glass or type-5 plastic water bottle; Fill it with filtered faucet water and bring it wherever you go. Avoid drinking bottled water where the faucet water is available.

* Note：

The commonly used large bottled water dispenser in office is also considered to be the bottled water, which can be replaced with drinking fountain that connected to the faucet water.

Bring Your Own Cutlery – Why Not?

There are 2 types of polystyrene cutlery: Foam Type (Disposable plate/cup, take-away food container) , Solid Type (Disposable spoon/fork, coffee cup lid, yogurt and margarine container). “Styrene”from polystyrene is a carcinogen that causes genetic disease, affects the reproductive system, destruction on fetal growth...... Styrene will be leaching into food when under heat, or contacted with oily or acidic substances. We are actually consuming “chemistry meal” when we use polystyrene as food container.

Many of us are aware that polystyrene is toxic to human, yet we still tolerate it day after day. Can't we just stop using the polystyrene without waiting for government to ban it? Do we have to blindly accept anything provided by hawkers or buffet caterers?  Why don’t we make some changes?

Bring your own cutlery, why not? --- Bring your own food container when take away food from restaurants; Bring your own cutlery when attend parties or feasts. With the same napkin you use to wipe your mouth, wipe away the grease on your cutlery before you bring them back to wash.  If we bring our cutlery, we can reduce half of the waste! Use the leftover food to make compost or bring it back as dinner for your pets! 0% waste！

* Note:

​Heat resistance degrees indicated on plastic products simply means the product will not be deformed under certain temperature, but it doesn't mean that no plasticizers or chemical toxins will be leaching.

Bring Your Own Bag – It's Easy

Not all plastic products should be banned, but some with their “environmental cost” is much higher than their usage value, plastic bag is one of those.

In 2002, Bangladesh began to ban all plastic bags after they discovered plastic bags are the major cause of deadly flooding in 1988 and 1998. Republic of Ireland started to introduce “plastic bag tax” or “Plastax” in year 2002, resulted in a 94% drop in consumption, and plastic waste has been dramatically reduced. In Ireland, carrying a plastic bag has soon become a nuisance like wearing a fur coat or do not clean the pet's feces, it's unacceptable socially.

The “No Plastic Day” regulation implemented by local government encourages people to bring their own shopping bag. However, merchants distribute excessive “eco-friendly bags” to advertise and to attract customer, or customers keep accept “eco-friendly bags” without using it, this is also considered to be a waste in disguise. In fact, the material of your own shopping bags, be it cotton, non-woven, linen, paper or even plastic is not an issue as long as we “reuse” the bags over and over again.

We can save around 2 billion plastic bags annually if every family in Malaysia consumes lesser plastic bag every day. “Many a little makes a mickle” can lead to a considerable effect.

Small Acts, Big Impacts --- ‘Treasure our resources’ and ‘reduce waste’ are actually ‘grand’ acts.

Hui-Zhi

*Main references and sources:   1.  <Plastic> -- Susan Freinkel;   2. Insight Sabah;   3. <Bottlemania> -- Elizabeth Royte;    4. Tapped (movie)

塑胶: 丢弃式主角, 永久性污染

我们买个不停、丢个不停，却没发现自己的健康和生活环境，就在这个过程中被彻底糟蹋。～ 摘自《东西的故事》

“用过即丢”的陋习

我们丢弃东西是如此的自然，几乎已变成反射动作；可是你知不知道：从前，人们是不习惯丢弃东西的 ？二次世界大战后，商家为了促销塑胶产品，想尽办法“教导”民众如何“用过即丢”…… 如今，大约50%塑胶原料是用来制造“丢弃式”用品。

每天有无数塑胶产品被制造和丢弃。塑胶“轻盈、强韧、 耐用”的特性，使它们在丢弃后，变成一项灾难……

生物杀手

塑胶垃圾造成至少267种生物受伤或死亡，估计每年约1,000,000只海鸟和100,000只海洋动物因塑胶垃圾而死。以信天翁为例，每年出生的500,000只雏鸟，约有200,000只死亡。母鸟误把塑胶垃圾当食物衔回来喂雏鸟，以至雏鸟肚子塞满了各种塑胶物件，结果无法进食或饮水、慢慢饿死；有时则吞下一片锐利到足以刺穿肠胃的塑胶，或塑胶本身大到堵塞其食道……

塑胶浓汤

海洋是地球蓝色心脏、重要生物棲息地。每年估计有725,700,000 公斤塑胶垃圾流进海洋！日积月累，将海洋酿成一锅“塑胶浓汤”。日本研究人员发现塑胶碎片具海绵效应，会吸收海洋中的化学毒物，例如PCB、BPA。塑胶碎片被小鱼吃掉，小鱼被大鱼吃掉…… 海洋中的塑胶垃圾，透过食物链，最后是否又回到餐桌上？

毒害健康

塑胶产品中最毒的不是塑胶本身，而是其添加物，例如：塑化剂、填充剂、染料、润滑剂等。添加物容易游离和释出，特别是高温和油脂环境中。DEHP是最常见塑化剂，研究显示，DEHP和以下病症和异常有关联：肿瘤、癌症、不孕、内分泌受干扰、男婴雌性化、生殖器官异常……

造成水灾

以亚庇为例，仅1天塑胶品用量已高达150公吨，1/3是塑胶袋和保利龙餐具。这些垃圾堵塞沟渠，造成蚊子、蟑螂、苍蝇和老鼠滋生，也造成沟渠阻塞；若大雨不停下几小时，市内多处地区和郊外部份地区就会出现水灾。环境保护局在当地河流中安装数个垃圾收集网，以将漂浮河面上垃圾网住和捞起；垃圾收集网每个120,000令吉。

垃圾爆满

大部份塑胶垃圾最终“归宿”是垃圾掩埋场、河流海洋；从繁华都市到偏僻乡村，到处留下“浪费”和“污染”证据。 2012年，东马巴甘奴第一、第二及第三垃圾填埋场，垃圾量已饱和，兴建的第四掩埋场，耗资24,000,000令吉。大马政府拟耗巨资建几座大焚化炉以焚烧垃圾，我们愿意承受比现在更“毒”的空气素质吗？

消费者省思

其实，塑胶不是罪魁祸首，擅长“用过即丢”的人类才是。

“便宜”的塑胶产品，使健康和生态遭受“不便宜”的伤害。

“方便”的塑胶产品，使健康和生态遭受“不方便”的后果。

塑胶来自石油；我们把数百万年才形成的天然资源，形塑成只打算使用几分钟的产品，接着又将这些万年不化的垃圾倒回地球。一个负责任的消费者会思考：使用和丢弃这些产品的代价与后果……

恢复“重复使用”美德

让我们重新审视那些我们早已视为理所当然、却在生产及使用过程中破坏地球的”便利品”，到底有多少必要性？～ 李伟文 (台湾荒野保护协会)  

自备水瓶 -- 应该的

我希望我可以说得婉转一点，但我实在不得不坦白直说：“ 请别喝瓶装水！”

全球抵制瓶装水的声浪越来越高，不只是环保团体，很多城市都加入行列。数年前，纽约市市长、三藩市市长和盐湖城市长已经共同发表“抵制瓶装水”的立场；100多个城镇投票禁止瓶装水；超过90所美国大学已禁止或打算在校园内禁止瓶装水。

大部份瓶装水公司都不愿透露其瓶装水来源、处理方式和纯净度，或含糊带过。瓶装水标签常印上 “大自然”名称和图像，企图让消费者以为他们的水来自纯净山泉。其实，将近一半品牌只是普通自来水，而消费者却用比家中自来水贵2000多倍的价格来购买。

实验发现：很多瓶装水其实没有比自来水卫生，当中有些还含38种污染物和细菌及8种化学物质。瓶装水通常都存放一段日子，载送过程中瓶身也被曝晒和受热，重金属、化学毒素、致癌物质（锑、邻苯二甲酸盐、塑化剂、雌激素、亚硝酸盐……）就会释放到水中，也静悄悄的进入饮用者身体……

美国太平洋研究所的科学家作了一项估计：全球每年用掉5千万桶石油来制造瓶装水的“宝特瓶”（这还不包括制造、运输和销售瓶装水过程当中所消耗的能源和水）。

国际企业责任组织（Corporate Accountability International, CAI）认为瓶装水是一种“企业滥用行为”的商品，将原本属于公众的水资源占为己有。有些瓶装水企业去到别人土地，强硬抽取当地的地下水来装瓶，售卖给无知消费者；牟暴利之余，也使地下水干凅、破坏湖河生态与农业。

鼓励大家：买个不锈钢、陶瓷、玻璃、或5号塑胶的水瓶，装了过滤后的水，随身携带，让水瓶和你如影相随。可以喝到自来水的地方，就少喝瓶装水吧！

* 注：办公室常见的大桶装饮水机，其实也是瓶装水的一种，可改用那种接自来水的饮水机。

自备餐具 – 有何不可 ？

保丽龙餐具有2种：发泡型（丢弃式碗盘杯、打包饭盒…），固体型（丢弃式匙叉、外卖咖啡杯盖、某些优酪乳和人造奶油容器）。保丽龙里的“苯乙烯”是致癌物，会引起基因病变、影响生殖系统、破坏胎儿成长…… 苯乙烯会释出到食物里，特别是受热、接触油或酸性物质时；用保丽龙装食物，等于是吃下加料“化学餐”。

其实很多人都知道保丽龙有毒，可是还是日复一日的姑息和容忍它。难道，真的要等到政府禁止保丽龙，我们才停止使用吗？不管自助餐承办者或小贩用什么，我们就只能乖乖接受吗？好不好我们不再因循苟且，下决心作一些其实不是很难的调整？

自备餐具，Why not？-- 到餐馆打包时拎个餐盒去；参加大型餐会时，自备不锈钢盘和匙筷，吃完后，擦嘴纸巾顺便用来擦掉餐具油渍，再拿回去洗。如果我们都自备餐具，垃圾量马上减掉一大半！剩下骨头和食物残余，可以做成堆肥，或打包回去当狗儿晚餐，清洁溜溜！0%垃圾！

* 注: 塑胶产品的“耐热度”，是指该产品在某温度以内不会变形，但这不代表说没有塑化剂或化学毒素释放出来。

自备袋子 -- 不难

不是说所有塑胶产品都该禁用，但是有些塑胶产品的“环境成本”超过了用途价值，塑胶袋就是其中之一。

孟加拉于2002年发现塑胶袋堵塞排水系统而酿成1988和1998年严重水患，当机立断，全面禁用塑胶袋。爱尔兰在2002年征收“塑胶袋税”，几星期内塑胶袋用量就锐减94%，塑胶袋垃圾量也大幅降低；在爱尔兰，“提着塑胶袋”的行为，很快就变成和“穿毛皮大衣”或“不清理狗儿大便”一样，是一种难以被社会接受的举止。

本地政府实施“无塑胶袋”日、鼓励自备环保袋；但商家却纷纷“滥发环保袋”打广告和招徕顾客，顾客们则“滥取环保袋”，但只拿而不用，这是一种变相浪费。其实，自备购物袋的材质无论是棉布、不织布、麻、纸，都不是最重要的，甚至自备塑胶袋也行，重点在于“重复使用”。

大马每一户人家，若每天少拿1个塑胶袋，我们每年就可减少丢弃大约20亿个塑胶袋；“积少成多”的果效是很可观的。

小小举动，影响深远 -- 珍惜资源和减少垃圾 ，其实不是“湿碎”的事，而是很“伟大”的事。

慧治

*主要参考和摘录来源：  

—《塑胶》- 苏珊.弗兰克 著，达娃、谢维玲 译    — Insight Sabah     —《别喝瓶装水》- 伊莉莎白.罗缇 著，褚耐安 译    — Tapped（影片）

Do You Keep Both of Them?

If you were the mayor of a city and your city is facing the dilemma of water scarcity, how would you solve the problem?

Would you drill the land for wells to extract the underground water until the water is drying out and the land is subsiding? Or would you spend tons of money and large amount of electricity to desalinize the sea water? Would you take great pains to use pipes hundreds of miles long to transfer water from the South to the North? Or would you employ high salary scientists to study for the water making techniques?

Actually, there is a simple and sustainable solution that – is – falling – down – from – the – sky.

Keeping the Rainwater

Rainwater is the most ignored water resource in our daily life. Every time when it rains, the rainwater comes and goes hastily, no one cares or pays attention to it.

When the rain comes down, the tough and unyielding concrete and asphalt would not let it enters the soil. As a result of this, rainwater is either causing flood or running straight to the ocean and becomes salty water. When most of the rainwater runs straight to the ocean, while the underground water is being overly extracted, as a result, not only the land becomes more and more dry and its surface weight is reduced, the sea level is rising up and the sea bed is bearing increased weight, this may cause changes in crustal structure, thus triggering earthquakes or tsunami like the 2004 ones. Besides, when rainwater falls on the impermeable road, it carries along many contaminants to the lakes, rivers and oceans.

Therefore, we ought to “cherish”, “keep” and “use” the rainwater. When the rainwater has chance to enter the soil, not only it can go through the natural filtering and cleansing process, it can also recharge the underground water. Actually, rainwater is a type of soft water, which is better for the plants than the faucet water. Moreover, using the clean faucet water that has gone through a complex process of “filtering/disinfecting/treatment” to water the plants and flush the toilet? It does not seem to make sense!

Rainwater “Piggy Bank”

Taiwan has abundant of rainfall, but globally it is also the country that ranked 18th in terms of water scarcity. This is because the population is increasing while the rainwater is running off. Now Taiwan begins to actively implementing “keeping the rainwater”; households and communities set up simple and useful Rainwater “Piggy Bank”, saving drops of rainwater.

Even the apartment without yard can also set up Rainwater “Piggy Bank” on the balcony or roof top. Rainwater “Piggy Bank” is the beautiful name for “Rain Barrel”, its material is not limited to plastic barrel, it can also be a stainless steel container, bricks masonry tank, etc.. Through simple piping construction, the rainwater falls on the roof is led to the Rainwater “Piggy Bank”, and just turn on the faucet at the container when need to use water.

Other than the Rainwater “Piggy Bank”, there are many more creative ways to collect rainwater, such as: “Rain Garden”, “Green Roof” and “Pervious Concrete” or “Permeable Pavement”, etc.. “Rain Garden” gathers rainwater from the surrounding and keeps the rainwater like a shallow bowl; it requires less watering and thus it is more water conserved and nicer looking than the grassy field. “Green Roof” is the roof top of a building that is planting Sedum type of short plants; it absorbs the rainwater like a sponge and reduces the CO2 and “Heat Island Effect” in the cities. “Pervious Concrete” replaces the hard asphalts with pavement that is consisting primarily of gravels and secondary of cement, which allows the instant infiltration of the rainwater.

Rainwater Collecting Ditches

Is there any hope for those areas that are having very little rain?

Hiware Bazar at the west part of India is called the “Miracle Water Village”. The preconditions of “Miracle Water Village” are not better than those surrounded villages. Just like other villages, it has scanty rain; but while other villages are as dry & desolate as the deserts, the “Miracle Water Village” has greeneries everywhere and has abundant of crops -- Why?

The answer is: The residents at “Miracle Water Village” work hand in hand to capture the rainwater and to use water wisely.

“Miracle Water Village”used to suffer from draught just like other villages. Then a wise leader from the village led the villagers to dig many contour rainwater collecting “ditches” and “basins”, and started to plant trees. Every time when it rains, the ditches and basins catch the scarce rainwater, so that it can infiltrate the ground, and the roots of trees can prevent mud-sliding. Gradually, the land is turning from barren to fertile……     

Keeping the Precious things

Just like the rainwater, we often ignore many precious things in life.

There was a scene in the book of John: In the middle of a hot day, a Samaritan woman went to a well to draw water. She met Jesus, and they started a conversation……

The Samaritan woman chose the hottest time in a day to draw water when there was nobody there, may be she wanted to stay away from those town people who talked behind her, as she had changed one partner after another. Jesus who was being understanding and discerning, knew that she was actually seeking for the true meaning of life, love and satisfaction, but she was lost in the midst of this……

That woman stood in front of Jesus, not knowing that she was facing the one true God of the whole universe who can quench the thirst in her soul. Only until Jesus revealed his identity to her that she came to her realization. Forgot about her shame, that woman ran excitedly back to the town people to proclaim the good news……

This was what Jesus had told that woman, and at the same time also an invitation to each of us, “Everyone who drinks this (well) water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the (living) water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

“The wonder at the basketball field”, Jeremy Lin, also used the example of the Samaritan woman when he shared his testimony at Good TV. He said that in the past when he was still sitting and waiting at the bench, the most desirable thing he wanted was to be able to bring out his talent on the basketball court and to achieve good scores. However, even though now that his dream comes true and he has climbed up to the peak of his life, he felt an Inexplicable void in his heart that nothing in this world could fill up. This thought process have brought Jeremy to a realization that: It is truly only Jesus Christ can bring him the ultimate and eternal satisfaction…..

For the problem of environmental water scarcity, God gives us the rainwater falling down from the sky.

For the need of a thirsty and arid heart, God grants us the living water came down from heaven.

The key is:  Do you keep both of them?

Hui-Zhi

( Chinese version was published in the “Shepherd” section of Nanyang Siang Pau on 2013.9.30 )