Water Issues
Water is a precious and sacred gift that we so often take for granted! We turn on the faucet and instantly we are blessed with clean water for drinking or washing dishes. Actions like taking a shower, flushing the toilet, using the hose to wash the car or water our garden are ones that we do many times without appreciating how fortunate we are.
“Water is essential for life. No living being on planet Earth can survive without it. It is a prerequisite for human health and well-being as well as for the preservation of the environment. However, four of every ten people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine; and nearly two in ten have no source of safe drinking water. Every year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. According to the World Health Organization, each and every day some 3,900 children die because of dirty water or poor hygiene; diseases transmitted through water or human excrement are the second-leading cause of death among children worldwide, after respiratory diseases. Water scarcity, poor water quality, and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices, and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. Water-related natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms and tsunamis exact a heavy toll in human life and suffering. And all too regularly, drought afflicts some of the world's poorest countries, exacerbating hunger and malnutrition.“ http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/background.html
What actions can we take?
1) Appreciate our gift of water: http://www.gratefulness.org/p/water.cfm
2) Conserve water:
http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php3) check out our water footprint:
http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/WaterFootprintCalculator4) Educate ourselves about water issues:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/601/water-and development#Thescaleofthewaterproblem
This site lists many of the global issues of the day. This link will lead to the scale of the water problem and contains text, pictures and charts.
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/
This website describes the work of this 35 year organization dedicated to cleaning up the oceans.
Water.org is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9axry-Y76w
This you tube video lists the many problems with bottled water.
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-05/ff_peakwater
This article talks about peak water – aquifers and rivers are running dry, and how three regions are coping.
http://www.onedrop.org/en.aspx
One Drop, an initiative of Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque duSoleil, is a non-governmental organization that develops integrated, innovative projects with an international scope, in which water plays a central role as a creative force in generating positive, sustainable effects for local and foreign populations and in the fight against poverty.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/water_rights_and_wrongs_english.pdf
A young people’s summary booklet of the United Nations Human Development Report 2006 Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis.
Out of Water: From Abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the World's Water Problems, hardback book by Colin Chartres and Samyuktha Varma.
After a review of the issues with water and what has caused the many problems, the authors tell us how the problems can be solved.
