New World Water

you can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna/but it don´t rain a full week some summers/and its about to get real wild in the half/you´ll be buyin´ evian just to take a fuckin´ bath
--Mos Def, New World Water


Whenever I ask Sebi and Rafa about the drought, Sebi expresses concern and takes the opportunity to remind me to be extra conservative with my water usage, while Rafa just says "No se nota," nobody notices it. At the same time, there´ll be at least one or two stories on the news in any given day about the rivers and reservoirs around the country being at dangerously low levels. It hasn´t rained in any sustained amount in about a year, as I understand it. Our resident director tells us there´s currently enough water in reserve for about 6-8 months, and that when that time runs out without any significant rainfall the government will begin shutting off water lines at night, and possibly even rationing water to households. Nonetheless the streetsweepers are out every single morning making the city sparkle (or at least giving it a dull, streaky sheen). Pilar and Inma, two sweet, helpful spanish women who work at the AIFS office, blame this on the politicians. Given that the economy is almost entirely driven by tourism, though, it seems a legitimate policy concern. Inma also told us that the spanish are notorious litterers, a statement bourne out by the appearance of the streets at night, and the floor of any given bar by about 1 AM. The ski slopes outside of town are still making fake snow so they can stay in business. Another tourist concern, doubtless. It also seems to indicate something deeper in the culture, as though the Spanish would rather cut down on showers and tooth-brushing than let anything impede their enjoyment of life.
It´s easy to romanticize that attitude, especially in comparison with a work-first, work-second prevailing mindset in the US (born of life in a voracious capitalist economy). The tensions paint themselves: sorry I´m late vs. nobody does anything on time; 50 or 51 forty-hour weeks vs. a month of vacation for almost every employee; consumption of things vs. consumption of experiences. It´s not hard to paint a beautiful picture out of that, but the fact is the air in this city is as gross as in any american city I´ve seen, the news warns of increasingly fat and docile children growing up under an increasingly consumerist society revolving around yearly fashion trends and class identification based primarily on appearance. Maybe that´s just the nature of city life (which is just as new to me as Spain itself, and in many ways harder to get used to). Maybe that´s the nature of modernization and an increasingly global economy.
I´m sorry I can´t figure out how to post the whole song I quoted from at the top-- it´s terrific, and even though Spain is far from the third-world Mos is describing it seems strangely appropriate to the current water situation here. So basic a necessity becomes increasingly politicized and marketed as the world develops, under the assumption it will never be scarce. Spain will find out how that works over the next 8 months I guess.