Water, water, everywhere...

The caption on an old tourist sign in Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park: “Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.”

Image: Black Point, Exuma Islands, Bahamas. Photo: Lauren Foster

The full moon is high when my sister and I slip off our 44 foot sailboat to row ashore on Warderick Wells Cay in the Bahamas. Locals in the area assert that if you climb to the highest part of the island at night you can hear cries on the wind, though the varied history of piracy and shipwreck at this spot make the ghosts' identity a mystery.

In the early 18^th century it was a hideout for many of the more notorious pirates of the Caribbean and as I look to the south I can see three islands named after Mary Read, Anne Bonney, and Edward Teach (Blackbeard). This spot was an ideal hideout for these famous pirates because it has a protected, hidden harbor deep enough for 12 foot draft pirate ships; a clear view of merchant ships headed through a narrow channel for the Bahama banks from the North Atlantic; but, perhaps most importantly, it is one of the few islands in the area with a supply of fresh water (Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park).

Image: Bronze sculpture of Mary Read and Anne Bonney by Erik Christianson (http://www.erikchristianson.com/sisters-of-the-sea/). Anne and Mary are famous for standing their ground in an attack from Jamaican law enforcers while the rest of their crew fled belowdecks. Mary yelled to her comrades: “if there's a man among ye, ye'll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!” (Abott, 2011).

According to the United Nations, fresh water is designated as a ‘scarce' resource if a country has less than 1,000 m³/capita/year. At 66 m³/capita/year the Bahamas ranked number 177 out of 180 countries for water availability in 2002. The main sources of water in the Bahamas are fresh water lenses in Pleistocene and Holocene limestone aquifers (see Figure 1). Precipitation percolates slowly through the porous limestone, settling on top of the saline seawater because the fresh water is less dense. The rock acts as a freshwater reservoir, slowing the rate of flow and thus the rate of mixing between the fresh and salt water (Army Corps of Engineers, 2004).

Figure: Hydrogeology of a Bahamian fresh water lens. The shallow sea, called the Bahama Banks, is located on the west side of the Exuma Cays, while the deep sea is located on the east side facing Exuma sound and the North Atlantic. In the Exumas the maximum depth of freshwater lenses is 16m, though most are only a meter or two below the land surface. The specific capacity of these aquifers is quite small, making modern groundwater development impractical (Army Corps of Engineers, 2004).

The country depends on desalinization plants and bottled water in addition to their small natural supply of freshwater. Beyond that, however, conservation is a necessary part of sustainable water use. Residential consumption is estimated to be between 150-200 liters/person/day. This is a sharp contrast to the tourist consumption of 400-1,000 liters/person/day (Integrated Coastal Management Planning, 2012). This discrepancy demonstrates that tourists from mainland areas have a lot to learn about water conservation.

Image: Our Alden 44 sailboat, HoKa, and my home for two weeks this winter. Photo: Lauren Foster

Living on a 44' sailboat for two weeks in the Exuma Cays provided me with direct experience focusing on consuming a minimal amount of fresh water. Our boat holds about 500 liters of water. We refilled 270 liters halfway through the trip. That meant we were consuming no more than 15 liters/person/day in spite of having most modern conveniences like a shower, bathroom and kitchen sink, toilet, refrigerator, and freezer. We did not carry any bottled water. Here are some of the key practices we employed to conserve water without sacrificing comfort:

1. We took navy-style showers: turn the water on to get wet, turn it off to soap or shampoo, then turn it on to rinse.
2. While rinsing off in the shower could be a daily occurrence, showering with soap and shampoo was limited to every few days.
3. When washing dishes we would soak them first in, for example, the empty (but dirty) salad bowl or pot. After emptying the super dirty water, we would soap each dish without running water. Silverware would get rinsed in a clean water glass. I would rinse glasses using the same amount of water, pouring from one to the next until the water was too soapy. Plates I rinsed one at a time, but in a stack so each one partially cleaned the ones below.

None of these practices were uncomfortable, inconvenient, or even slower than the way I do things at home. I was able to brush my teeth each night with a sink, wash my hands often, and shower regularly. I intend to continue practicing these conservation techniques on the mainland because the truth is we need to conserve water in the Western United States too. In California residential use has dropped from 880 liters/person/day to 670 liters/person/day over the past 20 years (Mount 2014). Can you imagine the impact of each person consuming only 15 liters/person/day?

My awareness of the value of fresh water has been sharpened by my weeks on the boat, so as I climb Boo Boo Hill in the darkness I understand how access to fresh water was a key piece of Blackbeard's successful piracy in the Bahamas. It makes sense that Mary Read and Anne Bonney would choose this particular cay to wait for unknowing ships to come through. Though the night is still, as we near the crest of the hill we hear a sound like wind in a tight tunnel or a sharp intake of breath. Almost as if there were thirsty ghosts wandering the tides to find one sip of that precious, life-giving resource: fresh water.

References:

Abbott, Karen (2011). “If there's a man among ye: the tale of pirate queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read.” Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history.

Army Corps of Engineers (2004). “Water resources assessment of the Bahamas.” http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Portals/46/docs/military/engineering/docs/WRA/Bahamas/BAHAMAS1WRA.pdf

Christianson, Erik. “Sisters of the sea.” Bronze sculpture. http://www.erikchristianson.com

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. http://www.exumapark.org/

Integrated Coastal Management Planning (2012). “Integrating watershed and coastal area management in the small island developing states of the Caribbean: Technical Report: National Report for the Bahamas.” http://iwlearn.net/iw-projects/1254/reports/bahamas-national-report.pdf

Mount, Jeffery; Freeman, Emma; Lund, Jay (2014). “Water Use in California.” Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_show.asp?i=1108

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