UUFSMA: “How to Fix Water, When Water Isn’t the Problem”

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service

“How to Fix Water, When Water Isn’t the Problem”
Speaker: Charles Fishman

Sunday, September 13, 2020
10:30 am

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040 

Password: 294513

By Joseph Plummer

UUF Secretary

A forceful, challenging, and inspiring public advocate for safe water, Charles Fishman, the guest speaker for this Sunday’s UUFSMA Online Service, will talk about the water problems that affect the health and safety of people in the region of San Miguel de Allende. Here overuse is depleting groundwater. Many people also rely upon water sources poisoned with arsenic and fluoride and unsafe for drinking and cooking.

Fishman acknowledges that such problems are solvable. People can be taught to use less water, harvest rainwater, replenish groundwater, and remove chemicals from life’s most essential liquid. However, the hard part is winning the hearts and minds of people to using water more smartly and safely. People need to demonstrate impatience for a plan to fix urgent problems, such as the poisons in the water children drink every day. Conversely, the community needing safer water must also be patient about fixes for problems requiring decades to conquer with small increments of annual progress.

The technical solutions can be elusive because they require adapting attitudes and habits to the risks of the region’s situation and persuading farmers, real estate developers, and government officials to approach water-use in new ways. Outlining solutions, Fishman will share stories from other places with water problems as serious and solvable as those San Miguel faces.

Fishman’s “The Big Thirst: The Secret Life & Turbulent Future of Water,” is one of this generation’s best-selling water books about a revolution in water use akin to the current revolution in computing, medicine, and communication. Fishman has addressed audiences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California Los Angeles, the Hershey chocolate company, and the U.S. State Department. A former reporter for the Washington Post, he is the author of three New York Times bestselling books. He grew up in Miami, Florida, graduated from Harvard, and lived for a while in Mexico City. He lives today in Washington, DC, with his wife, their two children, and two Labrador Retrievers beside a two-foot wide creek.

To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit the Fellowship’s website at www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button displayed on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in between 10:15-10:25 am.

Through grants and awards, UUFSMA donates at least fifty percent of its budget to support nonprofit organizations that provide health, educational, and environmental services for underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Please support this work by clicking on the website home page Donate button. Now more than ever, your support is essential.

Due to the coronavirus, UUFSMA has suspended in-person Sunday services and other gatherings. The UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Our fellowship was born in 1987 when a small group of expatriate religious liberals came together to meet as Unitarian Universalists in San Miguel de Allende. The fellowship has been active and thriving ever since. Every UU church has it’s own flavor, and we are no exception. We are a combination of expats and visitors, each actively engaged and contributing to this wonderful Mexican community we love. Because there is a coming, going, and returning aspect, our spiritual community is extremely fluid.  There is a magic in San Miguel which draws us in and binds us together—both as members of the church and of the larger community. Our programming is led by visiting ministers, community leaders, and church members, so the variety is lively. We have opportunities to meet as UU’s each week at discussion groups, breakfasts, luncheons, and in various other ways. Depending on the season, attendance fluctuates between 40 and 140. Our primary focus is on funding social action within the surrounding community. We love good music, good discussion, good food, and having visitors. We invite you to join us any Sunday morning.

Members regularly post updates and information on this site. We also post meeting minutes and announcements there.

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https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/UUFSMA/info

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