Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about being on a ship surrounded by water, but not being able to drink it in his poem “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” Although that is a work of fiction, for many people of the world, the water that is around them is unfit to drink.That situation is impossible for most of us to imagine. We might complain about our water bill or prefer bottled over water from the tap, but the acquisition of water is not on our list of concerns. We treat water as if it were an unlimited resource. It’s not.
For 1.1 billion people, access to safe drinking water is only a dream, and by 2025 by some estimates, two thirds of the world’s population will live in countries with moderate to severe water shortages. Currently more than 5 million people per year die from water related diseases. Eighty percent of diseases found in third world countries are related to the lack of safe drinking water.
Earth rarely looses or gains water. The same water that was here millions of years ago is still present today. Water is a finite resource whose usage is increasing with population growth.
In Mozambique, the average person uses less than 10 liters of water per day, while an American uses 575 liters per day. A woman in some countries spends an average of four hours per day moving 100 kg of water over many kilometers to meet the needs of her family.
Time spent in fulfilling basic needs takes away from time that could be used for education or cultural advancement of the society.
In the United States, forty percent of the waterways are unsuitable for fishing, bathing, or drinking. Even worse, in developing countries ninety percent of sewage is dumped untreated into bodies of water.
Eight-five percent of Americans depend on public water sources while fifteen percent get their water from private sources such as wells. It seems incomprehensible that it takes 2,400 liters of water to make a single hamburger from the birth of the steer to the serving of the meal.
Likewise, we put golf courses in the middle of deserts and then pipe water out to meet their needs. In bottling 89 billion liters of water each year, we throw away 1.5 million tons of plastic, while studies show that water from the tap is just as safe as bottled water.
What can be done? Will the planet’s water issues eventually lead to violent conflicts? Will water take the place of oil as the most sought after commodity? Can we do anything to stop the problems that have been identified?
Clearly, we all must act more responsibly, or the fate of the human race may be in danger. If you would like to understand the problems, organizations like One Drop (www.onedrop.org) and All About Water (www.allaboutwater.com) will amaze you with information you can use.
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