Averters of a Water Crisis: Regulators, Designers, Users. Artists.
“I tied water in plastic bags to create the impression of rain drops. From afar you begin to see it as rain falling, but you sense this scary image, because I added some substance. Initially I used aluminum chloride, the dry cell batteries." Bright Ugochukwu Eke filled over 6000 bags with water fouled by battery acid, bound them with string, and hung them at different lengths to create a major installation entitled "Acid Rain".
The cluster of polluted water packets, each resembling an (acid)raindrop, assumed the shape of a single, large water droplet. The bags were visually alluring and thematically terrifying. Their color varied from clear, to grey,to black, indicating the ominous reality it was revealing - the water in the installation, like the water falling as rain in the delta region of Nigeria, and all other locations where massive oil exploration is taking place, contained the carbon dust that is choking the inhabitants.
Although this piece was created in 2005, it remains regrettably timely. In 2005, the 192-member UN General Assembly declared the “Water for Life” International Decade 2005-2015.There is growing consensus that the water crisis — accelerated by pollution, inefficient use and climate change — will soon dwarf the energy crisis in significance and severity. Already, more than 900 million people on this planet do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion are not using safe sanitation practices.
Implementation of sustainable water use will require the combined efforts of regulators, designers, users, and artists like Bright Eke. Eke comments, “As an artist I don’t know if I am able to think about what is the solution to the problems of climate change. But I can use my artwork to talks about ills, the problems of climate change, or the problem that has come up as a result of our intolerances of the environment. “