Water Can Give Peace to this Planet

As filmmakers we believe it’s important to let you in on our thinking, how we move with these sentences that we share on social media, and what inspires us to dedicate this moment of our lives to bringing this message to the world.

So we offer you a conversation between Rosa Pannitschka and Emily Bishop, reflecting on a quote from Rajendra Singh!

Emily: Rajendra Singh says, “If you want peace on this planet, you start with the conservation of water. Water can give peace to this planet." What do you think of this sentence?

Rosa: That is a very radical statement.

Emily: Why do you think it is radical?

Rosa: Well, when you say this is where you have to start, I think it is radical because I see the living earth as a holographic organism, everything is connected. But what I like about this statement is that it opens this view that it leads to the interconnectedness of everything, because water is the element that connects everything on this Earth. Really. Seriously. For real!

And therefore I really like it because it is showing us something that we take for granted and that we forget, but that is maintaining our interdependence and our lives every day all the time.

Then to look at how water is being treated and how this impacts the health of our planet and of ourselves, it's huge! And I understand then why Rajendra says this. Of course, if we start to restore ecosystems and the waterways, then we do healing work in the end.

Then peace... it is such a big term that is also why I say it is radical.

Emily: And what is peace, right?

Rosa: Exactly... Where does it start and where does it stop? I don't even know if it is possible that you can say that this one thing will make peace on earth. I don't think it is that simple or there is a singular approach. But I like that the theme of water leads us into that realization of interconnectedness.

Emily: When I think about this sentence, and what you said, that it is radical... and how Rajendra talks about it, is to restore waterways so that they flow... yet we are living in such a capitalist paradigm that is inherently violent and non-peaceful that it traps water behind dams and it traps water in canals instead of allowing its free flowing river, making it inaccessible to people and all other beings.

Here in the Alentejo with the water that comes from the Santa Clara Dam, they literally told small farmers to stop taking water out of the canals so that there was still enough for the agricultural industry. This for me is a direct example of the disconnection between humans inherent dependency, relationship, and right to water.

Rosa: Also, the idea of privatization of water is so insane. There are literally wars over water already on this planet, people don't have drinking water in many places.

As a person who grew up in circumstances where I always had enough water, it even comes out of the tap in a quality that I can just drink it... it's a big luxury compared to many people's situation around the world.

So, for me it takes something to realize the degree of destruction and war over water, because this is not my daily life. And still, when I bring the problems the world is facing around water closer to myself, the spiritual aspect has an important role in it, to realize its sacredness..

Water, in my own process of reconnection, I'm learning to really honor. It is so so precious, this being of water. And realizing how our lives truly depend on this element. It's something that I also see as a teacher.

Emily: It reminds me of the legends of what happened to women in Europe when societies turned from communal and perhaps matriarchal to private and patriarchal. I think of the story of the Kingfisher's Court that tells how women who tended the wells were taken away by kings from their villages because of their beauty and generosity.

And I have the question how we as women, actually, all people, can reconnect to this source of serving our communities, taking care for our sources of water, and our connection to not just the human community, but the community of all life and the environment that surrounds us. Where there is water, there is life. It's such a force of creation!

Rosa: For me, that is THE thing. To learn to take care of the sources that nourish us, all of humanity. This would be another conversation!

Emily: So, water conservation can bring peace to the Earth?

Rosa: I believe this statement, otherwise I wouldn't do this work probably! And I believe it is an important piece of a big picture around healing the climate and bringing peace. But it is something SO practical to do, and it nourishes us back immediately when we do it. It is so clear that this is one of the most important steps we need to learn, to care for the water cycles, the environment.

Emily: It reminds me of a sentence in the animation, that we can restore ecosystems, not just in a matter of decades but in a matter of years. When we work to restore water to the places we are living, life comes back so fast!