Thank you, Henk

Last week, there was a party in the Netherlands to mark an important transition for one of the most important recent voices of water globally: Henk Ovink.

Many people on this mailing list have probably been aware of Henk for some time. If not, he served for several years as the Special Envoy on Water for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. That’s a mouthful of a title, but what it means is that for years Henk traveled far and wide, away from his family and friends, to serve as the water community’s connective tissue — joining all of our concerns, hopes, and institutions. He’s been a brilliant communicator, but he’s also been a vessel and catalyst to bring a spotlight to the people, issues, and needs of many of us. He has been kind and generous, and he has been effective.

About six months ago, I was asked to provide some closing comments on a series of talks about water, nature, and climate, and one of the observations I had while listening to the wonderful session was their “wholeness” and how well they fit together, showing the deep resilience and linkages of people, ecosystems, and the full and rich water cycle. They told a big story across continents and time.

In my closing comments, I pointed this out, and I said this quality to see and share the wholeness and inclusiveness of water was rare and special. Most of us are really trained to divide “water” into little pieces — often into problems and challenges — that are then easier to solve and fix as technical specialists.

Then I brought up Henk. The 200 or so people in that room were in New York for the UN Water Conference, not to mention perhaps another nine or ten thousand other people scattered across Manhattan. And Henk was as responsible as any other single person for all of us being there. He saw us whole and complete and as a community, and he saw that there was profound value in us being together and capturing that wholeness.

I asked the room: what speciality was Henk’s training as a water person? No one answered — presumably no one knew.

I said, Henk was trained as an artist, as a sculptor. His eyes are trained to see and reveal wholeness — how we fit together, how we need each other. And my theory is that water sometimes needs to be seen whole so that we can find the big solutions to our grand challenges.

I am so grateful to Henk for his time serving in this strange job with and for us, and I am so grateful for his government in lending his special gifts to the world. He will keep doing great things, and his role now has a smart, powerful new voice. But we should celebrate Henk’s vision too. Thank you, Henk.

John