Volvamos a la fuente

By Bruno Aracaty a brazilian entrepreneur, co-founder of Colab.re and Sin Zika, both citizen to government engagement platforms.

*by Gerhard Lair & Cristina López Mayher members of @BIDagua team

Suma Qamara is the expression of life of the Aymara people in the Altiplano.  The translation literally means to live in peace with oneself, in peace with other people, and in peace with the environment. The protection of the environment was at the cornerstone of the indigenous people of Latin America. Water, a precious public good, was captured and distributed through sophisticated systems long before modern times. It was available for everyone in the community.

A set of circumstances that included a persistent high pressure system and limited water re-circulating abilities (not to mention deforestation) have resulted in a painful extension of the worst drought in Brazil in at least 80 years.

Ipsa scientia potestas est. Knowledge itself is Power, claimed Francis Bacon in 1597. Power to grow, to move, to hurt, to surprise, to change.

Also, water itself is power. Power to quench, to refresh, to yield. To create energy, to provoke conflicts, to create life.

*by Natalie Bethel, working at @the_IDB Country Office in The Bahamas

This summer, I travelled to Detroit, Michigan for a Global Shapers forum: ‘Shape North America’.  It brought young ‘Global Shapers’ in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean together, with a goal of ‘inspiring and convening innovative systems thinkers who believe in sustainable, socially just, creative, and prosperous

Are we missing the point?

Few summers ago my wife and I went to California, to the Napa valley, where inevitably we met a lot of wine enthusiastic. Between glasses, we were amused in learning fascinating jargon related to wine tasting. “Wine descriptors”, they call it.

By Marle Reyes, @BIDagua contact in IDB Office in Guyana

Defecatio matutina bona tamquam medicina. Defecatio meridiana neque bona neque sana. Defecatio vespertina ducit hominem ad ruinam.

by Ikuko Kunitsuka, @BIDagua contact working with the Caribbean

We use lots of water every day but have you thought about how much water do you actually consume every day?

According to the USGS 2005 Water Census, average daily water use in the US is approximately 100 gallons (370 liters) per person, or more than 300 gallons (1,130 liters) per family. See the breakdown in Table 1.