Published: Issue 21 (2020) Water

Junctures: The Journal of Thematic Dialogue invites submissions on the theme “water.” Water is more than a precious commodity that requires careful management to maintain its quality, quantity and accessibility. We are all charged with its preservation and protection for the benefit and survival of ourselves and all living beings we share this planet with. The world’s freshwater resources are increasingly the subject of conflict between parties with vested interests and those advocating for biodiversity and protection of shrinking habitats.

Water is the core to life and has deep-time cultural and spiritual values. In 2017, Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui River catchment, was recognised in New Zealand law as a living being possessing all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.

E rere kau mai te Awa nui, Mai i te Kāhui Maunga ki Tangaroa, Ko au te Awa, ko te Awa ko au. (The Great River flows, From the Mountains to the Sea, I am the River and the River is me.)
Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui
In the same year the Uttarakhand High Court in India ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers, sacred in the Hindu religion, have the same legal rights as a person.

Lowered standards in catchment management for short-term gains increasingly exacerbate scarcity of potable water. Statistics from World Water Week, 2019, illustrate the extent of this: just four countries have met the UN Sustainable Development Goals for everyone to have access to sanitation and safe drinking water by 2030; 845 million people still need access to drinking water to meet 2030 UN goals; 2 billion people lack drinkable water at home. In addition, climate change, attributed to global warming, is intensifying flooding in low-lying areas and triggering mass migrations as people lose their homes to the rivers or the rising seas.

Junctures invites submissions from authors on the impacts of land use and resource consumption on water quality, and on various forms of stewardship and kaitiakitanga for our waters, both fresh and marine, now and in the future, whether from the hard sciences, humanities, visual, social sciences, law, education or medicine. Junctures encourages discussion across boundaries, whether these are disciplinary, geographic, cultural, social or economic. This allows us to highlight the resonances and disturbances of dialogue. With New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region as a backdrop, but not its only stage, Junctures seeks to address the matters which concern us all as we negotiate the contemporary environment. We accept commentaries and interventions that sit outside academia.

This issue of Junctures will also include a special report on the recent Art and Science Art+ Water: Mountains to the Sea, 2019.

Call for Papers: Junctures: The Journal of Thematic Dialogue.
Expressions of interest open now. Final deadline for papers: 30 April, 2020
Word limit: 4000 words feature articles, please also enquire about our other formats.
Editors: junctures@op.ac.nz
Marc Doesburg, Director Global Engagement marc.doesburg@op.ac.nz
Ron Bull, Tumuaki Whakaako ron.bull@op.ac.nz
Online journal at junctures.org