On this International Women’s Day, March 8, 2016 I’m honoring brave women who stood and stand at the front of the struggle for the right to clean water. “Rethink; we’re on the brink; no water to drink…” Free Mama Earth!
Mothers in Flint, Michigan were the first to speak out against the poisoned water which was sickening them and their children. Governor Rick Snyder appointed an unelected emergency manager who switched Flint’s water supply from the safe Detroit water system to the diseased Flint river. Flint residents & activists like Melissa Mays and Leeanne Walters organized, worked with the ACLU and exposed the conspiracy by Governor Synder and others to charge Flint residents some of the highest water rates in the country and knowingly and willfully supply poisoned water.
The fight for the right of everyone to clean water is international. Women in Africa, Asia, Latin and South America have to walk for miles to collect water for their families. In the face of corrupt governments like Honduras allowing multi national companies to dam and destroy the drinking water of poor people, environmentalist Berta Caceres organized Native Americans in Honduras to resist the construction of the Agua Zarca Dam which would deprive the indigenous people of water, fish and land that their ancestors lived on for hundreds of years. Last week gunmen crept into her home while she was sleeping and murdered Ms. Caceres. I leave you with Ms. Berta Caceres’ words in her acceptance speech for the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize:
“Our Mother Earth, militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated, demands that we take action…”
One Love,
Aria