Sixth Principle- 10 Principles For 100 Mile Design- By JC Scott

6. Wherever you are on the earth, you are in a watershed, and you are more than 90% water, so do the math.

We are mainly water, take away a few % points of biological compounds & minerals and we would all be puddles on the floor.

Photo by Bryn Tassell

In Canada, particularly on the West coast of Canada, it seems we could never run out of water; freshwater falls from the sky, waterfalls run madly off the mountains, clear fresh water lies in lakes all round us and water flows in large rivers. We embrace the vast Pacific Ocean full of whales, fish and seafood.

However, a combination of climate change and industrialization is threatening our water everywhere.   Fish farms and oil tankers, toxic run-off and fertilizers, airborn volatile organic compounds which end up at the top of mountains and in ice at the poles, these are the realities of the challenge to the vast ecosystem and the water that all life depends upon.

The hope we need to bring to this topic is that everyone will understand that water is basic to life, and hope furthermore that everyone knows that we don’t want to drink the water we pee in and that no one else does either.

Please think about the water within 100 miles of where you live and do what you can to keep it clean, to keep it publicly available because water and the right to it is a valuable public resource, water is not another global commodity for corporations to sell back to us.  I rember the first can of water that I saw.  It was discarded from a train.  When I see bottled water today 35 years later, I wonder how long it will be before companies try to sell us bottled air.

So the sixth principle of 100 Mile Design based around water is this; nothing except air and sunlight is more important to us all than water.  Treat water with the respect it deserves

Photo by City of Langford

Photo Credit:

1) http://www.bryntassell.ca/2008/06/02/waterfalls-of-vancouver-island/

2) http://www.cityoflangford.ca/EN/main/lifestyle/photo-galleries/goldstream-park/magestic-goldstream-park.html