A Trillion Litres and Living Water

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,   but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

 

John 4:13-15
 
I can go to my fridge right now and pull out a litre container of chocolate milk or coffee cream, so I have a fair concept of that form of measurement. A little research tells me that a moderately filled bathtub will contain 80 litres of water, or more. A backyard swimming pool? They vary in size, but perhaps 50,000 litres. That would mean 20 swimming pools for a million litres, am I right?

I really can't grasp the notion of a million litres of anything, let alone a thousand million, which is a billion. A thousand billion is a trillion, at least in North America. Enough weird math, you say!

Well --wait for it -- a recent estimate is that a trillion litres of raw sewage has leaked into Canadian lakes and rivers over in the past five years. That is the equivalent of more than 400,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. Ick. Many of these bodies of water are sources of drinking water, which must be carefully treated before we can consume it. Yes, the nasty stuff is diluted and we have safe drinking water in most places, although try telling that to many First Nations reserves. When, though, are we going to address this as the abomination it really is?We get justifiably wrapped around the axle when a few thousand litres of oil is spilled, but we are literally soiling our own nests on a regular basis with little public concern.

We should care and probably be outraged, and we should definitely listen to those who make it their full-time job to safeguard this precious resource, the "living water" on which all creatures depend. It's no accident that the imagery of water is sacred in the bible, and that Jesus referred to himself as Living Water.



Toronto Harbour four days ago

After last week's major downpour the Toronto waterfront was afloat with an unspeakable mess of sewage flotsam and jetsam. While we like to tout TO as a world-class city, this is a 19th century embarrassment and a huge problem.

Take a listen to Mark Mattson from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper as he discusses this challenge on CBC Metro Morning today.
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/metro-morning/segment/15578058