Our right to clean and healthy waters
When do the places we’ve migrated to feel like home? For me, it was when I paddled in the calm waters of the Econlockhatchee River.
That morning, the tranquil water resembled a mirror, the river perfectly reflecting the towering cypress trees standing like church columns. The giant clouds painted a mosaic in the sky, creating an ambiance so majestic it felt like paddling down a cathedral carved by Mother Nature herself.
The beauty of nature is its indiscriminate embrace — it does not care about our English proficiency, the accent that lingers on our tongues or our appearance. Nature greets us all the same, and embraces us with its warm, lush arms.
As I floated the river, I remembered words spoken to me during my childhood in Paraguay, where I grew up around the Pai Tavytera people who have long held a deep respect for nature. “Be present with nature…” echoed our spiritual leader, Galeano, ankle deep in the river and encircled by tiny, yellow butterflies.
Even though the journey down the river was calm, my senses were alert, scanning the shore for beer bottles, fishing line and discarded plastic. You see, my friends and I searched for litter that had found its way into these pristine waters, a crusade driven not solely to make the river beautiful again but to protect the innocent creatures from harmful debris and prevent pollutants from infiltrating our drinking water.
After our paddle, my friends and I made a circle with all the trash we found in the river, and as the afternoon rain caught us, we cherished our dreams that one day humans and animals alike could enjoy a peaceful river free of debris.
This desire to conserve and protect traces back to a memory from my school days in Paraguay. I remember casually discarding a piece of trash on the ground during lunch break. My principal confronted me, asking why I had done it. When I replied that “everyone does it,” she sternly said, “You are not everyone.” That exchange sparked a profound realization about personal responsibility and spurred my commitment to make a positive impact on our world.
As immigrants, our complex journeys begin the moment we leave our homes. We leave behind our roots, our families, and our friends, carrying within us an unyielding determination to improve our circumstances. At the same time, we carry a deepseated desire to contribute to our new homeland, to add value with our culture, our expertise and our values.
At a quick glance, the State of Florida presents itself as a vibrant oasis, summoning millions of visitors to enjoy our springs, rivers, lakes and sun-kissed beaches. Yet, hidden beneath the Instagram-worthy beauty is a dark reality: Florida’s freshwaters, once so pristine doctors sent their patients to heal in our waters, now rank among the country’s most polluted. And to make matters worse, Florida lawmakers recently passed a bill that will allow our roads to be paved with toxic materials, further poisoning our precious waters and turning what is left of our Eden-like paradise into a cautionary tale of ecological disaster.
Access to water, beyond its magical properties to connect us with Mother Nature, is our basic human right. In fact, water is essential to life. That’s why, today, we rally together to protect the waters of Florida and stand up for our shared human right. We come together, united by our collective desire to improve our new home and to safeguard our bodies of water, by calling on Florida lawmakers to amend our state constitution and establish a fundamental “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” for all Floridians. Although clean water is a basic human right, it isn’t a legally recognized right enshrined at a constitutional level, and it needs to be. With this right, we can hold our state agencies accountable when they permit the polluting of our waters and the degradation of our aquatic ecosystems. Together, we can preserve the precious waters of Florida — for ourselves, for our children, and for newcomers who will call Florida their home as we do. Frank Oscar Weaver is a Climate and Clean Energy Manager at Alianza Center, a local nonprofit that serves the Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities of Florida by developing and promoting leadership around the environment, healthy living and civic engagement.
Add your name by visiting: Floridarighttocleanwater.org/ petition.