Groundwater: Mending the Bond Between Water Keepers and Water Governance

This year’s UN World Water Day explores the theme of making the invisible, visible. We think this should extend to making silent voices, heard.

Search the term “Groundwater” and you will find countless western definitions describing a type of freshwater found underground in aquifers (geological formations of rock, soil and sand that hold water.) While technically true, this definition overlooks an important, centuries old relationship that humans have had with our most precious of shared resources. This year’s UN World Water Day theme provides us with a great opportunity to rediscover a holistic view of groundwater and use it to inform environmental, social and governance practices in business. Let’s not forget that when it comes to the climate crisis, women and indigenous peoples are the first to bear the burden of its consequences. It’s time that their voices were amplified.

Who owns the aquifer?

In 2022, groundwater is getting the attention it deserves, making the invisible, visible. This UN backed campaign, follows a forecast that that by 2030 water demand will outstrip supply by 40%. This is especially consequential when we consider only 1% of all water on earth is accessible to us and for many arid countries, groundwater is the only reliable source of freshwater. For this reason, it is seen as a fundamental piece of our climate change adaptation and resilience strategy.

And you don’t need a crystal ball to see the causal connections between societies’ secure access to water (or lack thereof) and resultant civil unrest. In the Coachella Valley of California (famed for its glamorous resorts, golf clubs and music festival), you will find the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians who for decades, have been fighting to protect their groundwater from exploitation so that future generations can not only live but thrive in their homeland. Who owns the aquifer? This has been contested in court battles where the water agencies and the Agua Caliente tribe face off. Lower courts ruled in the tribe’s favour and in late 2017, the Supreme Court denied an appeal. For many, this incident marked the turn of a tide where the spiritual value of water is not only understood but respected in the court of law.

Dig into the Agua Caliente tribe’s background in Palm Springs and you will find an extraordinary history. In 1955, they elected an all-women tribal council (uncommon even by today’s standards) who went on to write the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians first constitution and by-laws along with helping to shape the town’s cultural heritage. Vyola J Ortner led the tribe and went on to write a book with Diana C. du Pont uncovering the stories of the women who went head-to-head with traditional male tribal hierarchy and the old boys club. The title of the book, “You Can’t Eat Dirt”.

Fast forward to 2021 and this sentiment is echoed in a female led podcast called “Auntie Up!” – celebrating Indigenous women. In an episode called “Land Defenders and Water Protectors”, host and journalist Brandie Morn makes this familiar point in her opening statement, “You can’t drink oil”. It’s clear that women’s voices have been prophesying our impending water crisis for decades, but are they being heard? It’s a question that’s asked in numerous board rooms across the world where men outnumber women in significant proportions.

We cannot overlook the reciprocal and unique relationship that humans have had with water before the introduction of modern technology. Women in particular share a sacred connection to the spirit of water through their role as child bearers – this duty as ‘water protectors’ and ‘water keepers’ continues in many indigenous tribes to this day. Kate Cave and Shianne McKay explore this special connection in their paper Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water,

“Indigenous women have a strong and distinct physical and spiritual relationship with water and have traditionally been tasked with caring for it as it provides us with our first water environment in the womb, announces our birth, and sustains life.”

As protectors and keepers of water, their social responsibility extends to the advocacy of sustainable water management for future generations. This view of water can help shift our global mindset from a purely extractive logic to one that understands and respects the spiritual value of water.

Reimagining how we value water

Historically, surface and groundwater systems have been treated separately – although they are part of the same system - however, there is an increasing desire to understand both the surface and groundwater system as a singular system. The benefits of a coupled groundwater model include improved agility and transparency. What if we included a holistic view to this rounded approach? Working to mend the bond between water keepers and water governance could be the key to a radical reimagining of water strategy.

It all comes down to the way we value water.

Not an easy task when a litre of the stuff in Carlisle has a marginally different worth than that same litre in water-stressed Cairo. Factor in the spiritual value of a litre of water to the people of Agua Caliente and you’re left with a complex combination. It’s becoming increasingly clear that decision making on a political and industrial level, needs to factor in a more nuanced understanding of water.

And it goes beyond water. The global investment community is demanding greater alignment from industry to ESG metrics which in essence require improvements in accountability, transparency, and stakeholder engagement. In the UK alone, new metrics come into force in 2022, making ESG reporting mandatory for all private companies with more than 500 employees. The way businesses treat people and planet is about to affect their bottom line whether they like it or not.

Take the minerals and extractives industry for example, while there has always been pressure to gain a technical licence to operate, we see that extending to a meaningful social license to operate. “Meaningful” refers to a stakeholder’s full understanding and participation to give free and prior informed consent to a development on community or most often, indigenous land. A straightforward request until you start to expect every-day people to understand the findings of a long, technical and for most of us, boring water modelling report. The path to successful and clear communication between stakeholders and industry lies in the democratisation of data…among other things as listed in Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water,

“Innovations in information and computer technologies are making this global shared learning more accessible to more people. In order to maximize the impact of these resources, training opportunities are required by everyone involved with water to ensure the ability to discern, analyze, and implement solutions”.

Activists like Cave and McKay help us to acknowledge that there has been and continues to be a disconnect in the transfer of knowledge from indigenous peoples to the Governments, Developers and Corporations making the key decisions. “Improved transparency” in groundwater should extend to the accessibility of data to key stakeholders and not just refer to the quality of data. We need to mend the inequities in the involvement of indigenous women in water governance and restore women’s rightful place in the decision making process if we are looking for a radical water strategy in the face of climate change adaptation and resilience.

Helpful Resources!

Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water

First Nations Drinking Water Crisis

The women who built Palm Springs

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