Timpf Munteanu 35

Lisa Timpf Interviews Nina Munteanu

(Inanna, 2020)

Nina Munteanu

Nina Munteanu’s novel A Diary in the Age of Water (Inanna, 2020) explores a future in which Canada has lost control over its water resources. Much of the water is funneled south to the United States, while corporations also have their hooks into water resources. This leaves Canadians to struggle with increasingly small daily water quotas in a land where water was once taken for granted. In Munteanu’s book, disregard for the science of water and the consequences of messing around with phenomena like watersheds and aquifers have disastrous long-term outcomes. What makes A Diary in the Age of Water more sobering is the fact that Munteanu has a water science background, adding credence to the book’s content.

I first read the book six years ago. Recent events, like the unraveling of environmental protections, the rising disregard of fact-based science, and the proliferation of water-hungry data centers got me thinking that water stewardship in Canada is becoming an even more important issue. Curious about Munteanu’s take on things, I caught up with her recently to discuss her book and talk about how it connects with some of the things happening in the world today.

This interview took place over a video call and subsequent emails in March, 2026.

Lisa Timpf: A Diary in the Age of Water was copyrighted in 2020, but some of the things depicted seem to be even more true now than before: for example, distrust of facts.

Nina Munteanu: A Diary in the Age of Water was published in 2020 but I was actively writing it during Trump’s first entry to the [political] stage. I still remember Kellyanne Conway’s remark about “alternative facts” in 2017; it’s a silly remark in the sense that it’s an oxymoron, but it touches on the paradoxes of George Orwell’s dystopia 1984, and in some ways serves as a gateway to the post-truth era of Trump—still ongoing because it suits many of us. Elements of this kind of deception run through my novel; for instance, many entries by the diarist address the dangerous divergence from evidence-based truth to faith-based and agenda-based ‘truths’—and how this political strategy serves the exploitive government and associated oligarchy.

I think a lot of things changed after Trump took office in 2016. Or, they didn’t change so much as our perceptions changed. What he made emerge wasn’t new. What he did was bring it all out in the open. So, you could say that I was writing about a post-truth Trump world.

In truth, I’ve been writing A Diary in the Age of Water for years. I had lots of years to think about the things this novel explores. The water crisis. Climate change. Habitat destruction. Ongoing extinction. What happened during Trump’s first term just provided the last crucial material for the book.

LT: When you say you had been writing it for years, do you mean you were writing it in your mind or you were writing bits and pieces on paper?

NM: Not so much the latter. More like this book was growing inside me for years as I gathered what I needed to create it. As you know—and the title more than suggests—water features as a key character in the book and the main narrator is a limnologist, someone who studies water. I’d been wanting to write a novel about water for a while. I’ve been fascinated by water since I was a child. I was afraid of water, and that created a fascination. While my siblings were swimming, I studied water. Water became an important aspect of my life and I eventually made its study a career as a limnologist and environmental consultant.

Being an environmental consultant is not what you might think. I often consulted for industry. I became an environmental consultant to help industry become better stewards. A consultant’s assessment is like truth: you can leave some parts out; you still have truth, but only part of the story. I became very jaded with the consulting business as I watched my reports edited and their truths subverted. So I quit that business and pursued a career in education and writing fiction.

My first book on water wasn’t a novel; it was non-fiction. I wrote Water Is…The Meaning of Water, which came out in 2016 (the year Trump first got in). I wanted something out there for the regular Joe to read and better understand the importance of water. I gathered so much wonderful material for the book, even from the fringes of science—things not easily replicated or proven. Concerned for my reputation as a scientist, I demurred submitting it for publication. Then I realized that, unlike the compromised truths of omission, these fringe truths reach out for possibility. So, I went ahead. I was vindicated in its publication; the book was very well received, including a nod from Margaret Atwood in the New York Times. Those fringe ideas and notions added a richness and colour to the book, including water’s many anomalous properties, most of which are life-giving.

I started physically writing A Diary in the Age of Water right after the publication of Water Is… I wanted to explore more deeply questions posed particularly by the fringe science in the non-fiction book: questions like, what is water? What is water doing? What are we doing to it and what follows? Most of the novel is narrated by a limnologist in the form of diary entries. Readers found the novel intense and scary. I think this is partly because it touches on nonfiction, because of the way the diarist writes things which the reader realizes are real. The reader doesn’t know where the nonfiction stops and the fiction starts.

The fiction of A Diary in the Age of Water riffs off the current political tensions and conflicts between countries over water. These water wars are occurring right now and have been for some time. In the Middle East and Asia. There are tensions between Egypt and nine upstream countries for control of water in the Nile watershed; the Sudanese and Ethiopians are building dams and Egypt plans to pump water from Lake Nassar into the Sahara. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China are in conflict over control of rivers such as the Indus, Ganges, and particularly the Brahmaputra. India’s River Link Plan impacts Bangladesh. Meantime Pakistan, Kashmir and India fight over more and more water, as the Indus dries up and no longer flows into the ocean.

Closer to home, Canada and America border some significant water bodies such as the Great Lakes and various rivers like the Columbia River in the west. We’ve formed joint commissions along with treaties to manage these trans-boundary water bodies. They’ve often been highly electrified politically.

LT: Speaking of water impacts, do you think the water usage of AI server farms is going to accelerate our issues with water, by bringing them to a head sooner?

NM: Most certainly. While agriculture uses over two thirds of our available freshwater—mostly to irrigate intensive monocrops—data centres have rapidly become major water consumers. And this will become more pressing as more and more data centres establish throughout the world. For instance, Bell Canada is currently proposing a large-scale 90,000 square-foot AI data centre near Regina and another 150MW facility in Moose Jaw.

Data centres use huge amounts of water to cool their servers; large facilities easily consume millions of gallons daily—equivalent to a town’s needs—and some tech giants report using billions of gallons annually. Data centres are springing up all over the world to accommodate the increased water demand by thirsty AI. Servers generate a lot of heat, requiring significant water to cool through evaporative cooling towers (chillers). Massive volumes of water evaporate from these facilities. Power generation at these facilities also requires substantial water.

Aside from the increased shortage of water to the surrounding ecosystems and watersheds, water use by data centres creates thermal pollution. And now with China introducing Underwater Data Centres (UDCs) in marine environments to more efficiently cool their servers, other environmental problems are likely. Heat discharged from the capsules potentially raises surrounding water temperatures with associated oxygen reduction that threatens marine life. This is just another bomb ready to go off related to our growing dependence on AI.

LT: In A Dairy in the Age of Water, Lynna notes, “We all just let it happen. We paid attention to the wrong things.” What do we need to pay attention to in order to avoid a future like the one depicted in A Diary in the Age of Water?

NM: I’m not sure any of us agree on the answer to that. Canadians are in a very unique position being who we are and where we are. To answer the question, I think we need to pay attention to all that we have ‘othered,’ and listen, give what we have ‘othered’ a voice. When I was in school I wasn’t taught about the Indigenous people and their knowledge; I wasn’t taught about ecology, stewardship and our role in maintaining biodiverse ecosystems. We can’t afford to make decisions based on ignorance. In this, our education system has failed us. We are not educated on some of the fundamental things we need to be leaders; we’re taught, rather, to be competitive, get a job and be a good consumer. That’s not really us. I believe we’re born empathic and cooperative and taught to be selfish and competitive. That is what needs to change. How we are taught.

Most of us live and subscribe to a worldview and belief system that came from a place of great uncertainty with a perception of scarcity and an existential model based on fear and separation. Ancient peoples and most Indigenous people today do not hold themselves as separate from the land; they already live in ecological civilizations. An ecological civilization is both a new and ancient idea. Buddhist, Taoist, and other traditions base their spiritual wisdom on the deep interconnectedness of all things. According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, “In Indigenous ways of knowing, it is understood that each living being has a particular role to play. Every being is endowed with certain gifts, its own intelligence, its own spirit, its own story…The foundation of education is to discover that gift within us and learn to use it well.”

To go back to what Lynna was thinking, if I was to re-enter her head to interpret what she meant (and what her own regrets and her daughter may have taught her), I’d say that ultimately it isn’t our intelligence—our cleverness—that will save us; it is our kindness and compassion that will do that. We don’t need to invent some techy thing or reinvent ourselves or implant some intelligent virus into us. What we simply need to do is accept ourselves with humility, find and express joy. Give in to the beauty of our world and our own part in it. Become a participant. Embrace the feminine. Respect Nature and all that lies in it. Find something there to love, cherish it, and protect it. The rest will follow.

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist and internationally published novelist of science fiction and fantasy. In addition to eight published novels, Nina has written award-nominated short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which have been translated into several languages throughout the world. Recognition for her work includes the Midwest Book Review Reader’s Choice Award, finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, the SLF Fountain Award, and The Delta Optimist Reviewers Choice. Nina teaches writing at the University of Toronto and George Brown College. She also gives writing workshops and courses based on her award-nominated guidebook The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! (Starfire World Syndicate). Nina shares her time between Toronto and Vancouver.

Ontario resident Lisa Timpf writes poetry, book reviews, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Her speculative poetry collections Cats and Dogs in Space (2025) and In Days to Come (2022) are available from Hiraeth Publishing in print and electronic formats. Lisa is a member of SF Canada and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. You can find out more about her writing projects at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/. Lisa is also on Bluesky, @lisatimpf.bsky.social