Opinion Graphic
During a recent leadership summit on NC State’s campus with a focus on sustainability, participants had the chance to learn about the Nile Project. The goal of this project is to communicate sustainability issues that impact the Nile to the countries that surround its banks, as well as other places in the world. Many of the people surrounding the Nile basin only communicate orally; thus, the Nile Project uses music as a tool everyone can understand and appreciate.
Music is a way for these people not only to forget about the problems that plague them, but also to connect to the people surrounding them on a fundamental level. From this newfound empathy, they can then approach the problems with a mutual understanding, and it works.
As an NC State student in environmental science, I had not heard of the issues surrounding the Nile River and its importance to Africa. While occasionally we will hear of droughts in Africa, public knowledge of the Nile region is almost nonexistent. Currently the U.N. has declared we are facing the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII in Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia, and here America is in its little bubble.
After the concert and the conclusion of the leadership summit, I watched as students came out of those bubbles. We learned to value a culture that is extremely different than our own and see a different region of the world from a new point of view.
In America, we have historically approached our dealings with other countries in an ethnocentric manner. While it can easily be argued that Africa is culturally isolated, America is as well. This belief that our culture and our values are superior in the sense that others must also accept them is extremely biased. We seem to look to other places with the assumption that we have the answers they seek.
This sense of superiority is very dangerous, in particular when we face problems at home that aren’t too different from other countries’ problems at all. Water shortages, for example, show incredibly well that even in the U.S. the communication and collaboration between different states and regional governments is anything but smooth and easy. The illusion that in America we work well together between states often conflicts with reality. Often the sense of security and superiority an illusion rather than a reality.
Issues regarding water pollution and its unsustainable use has increasingly become an issue that many Americans have begun to hear of. North Carolina is no stranger to transboundary water management issues.
In 2008, the Catawba River Watershed was named by American Rivers as the most endangered river in the United States. Poor water management and human density near the watershed accounts for the majority of the issues in the Catawba basin. The basin supplies drinking water to 1.3 million, and Kannapolis and Concord fought for rights to its water during the last severe drought.
The intersectionality of the issues that plague communities near watersheds in the world is very similar. While it is easy for us to look at other regions and say they have it wrong, examples like the Colorado River, Mississippi River and Great Lakes hint toward our own failing.
Our current political climate has made Americans begin to question norms that were once thought to be set in stone. Many of us seem to be freed from the false belief that we have all the answers, even when it comes to issues within our own borders.
President Donald Trump’s promise to bring back coal jobs comes hand in hand with an increase in coal ash ponds that are usually located in floodplains. His desire to cut regulations that are “damaging” to the economy may have ghastly effects on clean air and water, two things Americans very much take for granted.
At NC State, there is almost nothing on campus that could function without the use of water. Water is essential to the generation of electricity. Think how many hours of the day you would not be able to be productive without the light that comes at the flip of a switch. This is a privilege, not a norm. Many girls in Africa, for example, cannot attend school because they spend much of their day walking extremely long distances to collect water for their families for cooking and sanitation.
Water permeates every aspect of life. In order to find innovative solutions we must first be open to seeing that we could be more sustainable in our use of water resources. We cannot solve this problem by not taking responsibility for our own complicity.
While the music of the Nile River Project was a conversation starter, we must not let this conversation end.