In the month of August 2031, amidst seemingly endless psuedo-political debates on cutting down carbon emissions and implimentation of tougher laws against air pollution, the citizens of Greater Klang Valley, Malaysia rejoiced upon the conclusion of their river-purification projects for the Klang and Gombak river networks. It was a crowdfunded citizen initiative strengthened by commercially-available spin-offs from the Martian colonization and biosphere advancements the decade before. Soon the great Yellow river in China followed to become pollutant-free by 2045. From there, the Asians continued their efforts to include their surrounding great oceans.
It was a humbling awakening. The water crisis faced by our Martian forefathers reminded the human species again of how essential clean water was for life. I still hear stories from Earth these days of current generations born still carrying (and sometimes manifesting) the gene mutations from previously-exposed bloodlines, recently in some rural village in Nepal or a small fishing town in Japan, I’m not so sure. The man-made canals of Mars became the bridge to reconnecting with our ancient cradles of life; the Earth rivers.
Today, I chanced on scouting the Newcomb water networks with an old academy colleague. We drove around the smaller pumps that were not maintained by the drones. The rain smells of Amazonian dew here, all year.
Mars Armstrong.
The Year Is 2120 