National Water Center, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
         

National Water Center, Eureka Springs, AR

Updated: April 2014 Contact: Contact: NWC

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Some North American Bioregional Water Committee Reflections
by Barbara Helen Harmony

The Water Committee met initially at the first North American Bioregional Congress (NABC) in May of 1984. Water workers from across the continent designed a platform and wrote resolutions near Excelsior Springs, Missouri, in the Kansas Area Watershed. We determined that Water is the basis of life on the planet and the primary organizing force of the bioregion. We promised to found a Bioregional Water Network with Water Committee Members collecting and disseminating information. We were happy to learn the good water practices of Bioregionalists particularly the use of compost toilets.

In 1986 at the second NABC on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Leelanau Province of Great Lakes Macroregion, the Water Committee shared stories of Water degradation and deepened our resolutions.

In 1988, at NABC III, on Cheakamus River, Paradise Valley, Squamish Ish Bioregion in British Columbia, again resolutions were refined.

At the fourth North American Bioregional Congress in 1990 in the Kennebec River Watershed on the Gulf of Maine, when the Water Committee met it was agreed that we should give thanks to the Water. The morning the plenary session was to open, the Water Committee met on the banks of Lake Cobboseecontee and gave thanks to the water. The group joined the plenary session, bringing with us the purity and strength of purpose that we received from the water.

When the Water Committee met on the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Texas at the 5th Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering each person told about their water work. We then sat in silence in the circle as it rained for about 4 minutes, the same amount of time each person had spoken.

In 1994, at the 6th Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering, the water committee met on Otter Creek in Kentucky. We attempted to summarize the resolutions.

In 1996, at the first Bioregional Gathering of the Americas, there was a good exchange of Water Information. It covered a wide range of experiences.

Once again, it was remembered and noted that water speaks a universal language of oneness and sustains all life.