WWW - World Water Wars

With this design focus of "Water", I clearly don't know the true issues behind it. Just watched Blue Gold: World Water Wars (source: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/blue-gold-world-water-wars/) and wow, I really don't recognise the blessing of potable water, especially when I come from Singapore and am currently living in Christchurch, both places of which potable water is a given.

Now, to quote Simon's famous question of "so as a landscape architect, what can you do?", I thought the last few minutes were particularly interesting. As a landscape architect, the best tool I have is to bring awareness through design. Why don't we know our watershed catchment names, as much as we know our region's name, our town's name, our street's name? Why do people not recognise the importance of water replenishing the aquifers below? It's quite evident to me that there needs to be a lot of, what Wendy often reminds us, "cues to care" in the landscape so that people are more aware of the need to protect their environment, a better understanding of how their environment works, and from there, we would then be more able to be better stewards of the landscape.

Currently doing a project on Diamond Harbour's Stoddart Point, and hm, I'm more convinced that water is indeed a very, very important issue to tackle. The million dollar question is, how exactly. For this project, I'm looking at finding ways for water retention, such that percolation into the ground increases. It's not just erosion that's the issue, it's the need to replenish our freshwaters rather than draining them dry. It's hard to say what's the most important resource, but water is definitely one of them, alongside with soil. Kingdoms are built on the quality of their soils, although Diamond Harbour is blessed with good soil, let not that be taken for granted, ay?

Note to self: gotta do more research on this ecosystem services concept.

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