We Want

Water

After Lake Titicaca Lake Poopé is the biggest lake

in Bolivia And the lake with the funniest name of

course But since 2015 Lake Poopé has no longer

been a lake High temperatures have caused the

shallow water to evaporate Thousands of dead

f ish lie on the cracked bottom roasting in the

sun Scattered across the dry plain f ishing boats

wait to go sailing again That moment may never

come The water of Lake Poopé came from rain

and from glaciers But not much rain has fallen in

recent years And less and less is coming from the

glaciers because they are getting smaller However

its not all the fault of climate change Farmers

and mines in the region secretly took far too much

water for themselves They need the water for

agriculture and to get lithium out of the ground for

the battery in your smartphone The truth is that

theres simply not enough water in Bolivia

Imagine turning on the faucet and nothing coming

out Or f lushing the toilet and it doesnt f lush

Or going to the store for bottles of water but the

shelves are empty mat was what happened for

weeks in large areas of Bolivia Schools closed

their doors You werent allowed to go to the

bathroom in restaurants The government brought

in tankers of water and the people lined up with

buckets and basins They were only given water

to drink not to wash themselves There wasnt

enough for that The Bolivians were furious with

the government Carrying empty buckets and

bottles they went out onto the streets to protest

They held up signs saying WE WANT WATER

As if the government could do anything about the

fact that there was no water coming out of the

faucets Well they kind of could They should have

known for a long time that less and less water

would be available Which was a very good reason

to use it carefully By making sure that farmers

didnt waste it on their land and that miners didnt

take it secretly And as in the Amazon endlessly

chopping down trees wasnt a good idea here

either

Bolivia isnt the only country struggling with

increasing drought In the United States water in

California is regularly rationed because theres not

enough of it When rationing happens it means

that people arent allowed to wash their cars f ill

their swimming pools or spray their golf courses

So its more of a luxury issue But

drought and storms also cause big forest f ires in

California and in other places And thats not about

luxury People regularly have to f lee and there are

deaths and casualties

The countries around the Mediterranean are also

becoming warmer and warmer There are more

forest f ires and frequent water shortages During

the worst droughts people in Spain are not allowed

to spray their yards or add water to their pools And

there you are in your f ivestar hotel with all those

waterslides Experts predict that many beaches

in Spain Portugal and Turkey Will in the course of

this century become too hot for summer vacations

Drought and heat are slowly changing parts of

these countries into deserts

Marc ter Horst

Published in Palm

Trees at the North Pole

published by Greystone

Books Canada Originally

published in Dutch in

2018 as Palmen op

de Noordpool by JH

GottmerHJW Becht

bv text © Marc ter

Horst illustrations ©

Wendy Panders English

translation rights© Laura

Watkinson

Marc ter Horst is a Dutch writer of books for

children of all ages both f iction and nonf iction

His main book about climate change Palm

Trees at the North Pole has won several prizes

in the Netherlands and has been translated into

13 languages

Marc ter Horst