Recently the Toronto Star offered an excellent and hopeful series on four rivers which flow through the "Big Smoke." They are the Don, the Humber, the Rouge and the Credit. These are essentially good news stories of rivers which were once used as open sewers for human and industrial waste. They point out that rehabilitation has involved government along with concerned, often passionate individuals who have made the care of these waterways part of their lives. Rouge River activist Lois James is in the photo above.
As I read the articles it struck me that the notion of healthy rivers flowing through the city is downright biblical (ministers tend to think this way.) There are rivers in the first book of the bible, Genesis, and then another "citified" river in the vision of John in the last book of the bible, Revelation. The restored city of the "new heaven and a new earth" will feature a pristine river with trees flourishing on either side.
In the meantime we can work for the health of the rivers of our communities, including the Moira here in Belleville. We have gone north of the city and kayaked the Moira through quiet country but I liked cycling over it on the way to and from work during our apartment stay during the first two months in the community.
The story is not just "feel good" unfortunately. A couple of the rivers have their headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine and flow through land expropriated for an airport forty years ago. That worked in their favour in these past few decades but now the feds have announced that they will proceed with an international airport with all the run-off of de-icing fluid and other chemicals which could degrade water quality. We don't catch on quickly as humans. God help us!
Did you read any of the Star articles? You can google Toronto Star river series with the name of each river. What about the rivers of your lives, wherever you reside? Other comments?
I hope people in that area roar loudly against this !
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