Today is World Water Day.

This means that thousands of people from all over the world will be talking about the same topic: clean water.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

The Facts:

Did you know that nearly one billion people lack access to clean water? That’s one in seven people that will struggle and suffer from disease and possible death.

Each year 3.575 million people die from water related disease, 90 percent are children under the age of five. This means that every 20 seconds a child dies from a water related disease.

Woman and children across the globe spend a total of 200 million hours each day collecting water for domestic use. 40 billion hours a year are spent in search of water in Africa alone.

Less than one percent of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use.

Water on the Daily:

While a billion people go without water in the developing world, we here in the industrialized world are using much more than our fair share.

I was surprised to learn that it takes 24 litres of water to produce one hamburger, 1,514 litres to produce a cotton t-shirt and 6,813 litres for a pair of jeans. What!?

Water consumption is everywhere—even in places we may not really think about it.

Let’s start thinking about it!

What can we do?

Just getting into the mindset of conserving water is a start. Here are some things we can do around the house that will go a long way.

*Take shorter showers.
*Turn the tap off while you brush your teeth or shave.
*Turn the water off while you wash dishes or vegetables.
*Only use the dishwasher or washing machine for full loads. Or set the dial accordingly.
*Check pipes for leaks regularly.
*Avoid the garburator by using a compost bucket.
*Use common sense! Any time you are running water to wash or water something water is being wasted. Fill a bucket, fill a sink, fill a bottle and use only what you need.

Websites:

Check out Water.org and Charity: water to learn about ways that you can get involved.

A donation as little as $20 gives one person clean water for 20 years. Crazy, right?

Don’t have an extra buck? Don’t worry. Just pass the message along. Spreading awareness is one way we can help combat the water crisis. This is what World Water Day is all about, awareness.

Just think, the only water we will ever have, is the water that we have now.

Now that’s some high quality H2O!

~

 Editor: Brianna Bemel