Blog Action Day 2010: Water
October 15, 2010 by Lillie
Late one night last week, I went into the kitchen to refill my water bottle. There was no ice in the ice maker, and the temperature in the freezer was rising rapidly. The next morning, I called a repairman and arranged for service. By that evening the freezer was cooling again, and by the next morning, we had plenty of ice. In those hours in between, however, I thought I really had it tough having to drink my water at room temperature rather than ice cold as I like it.
These statistics from the Blog Action Day website made me realize how blessed I was to have that room-temperature water!
- Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
- African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
- Students in developing countries lose 443 million school days each year due to diseases associated with the lack of water, sanitation and hygiene. Repeated episodes of diarrhea and worm infestations diminish a child’s ability to learn and impair cognitive development.
- Every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in water sources. This not only negatively impacts the environment but also harms the health of surrounding communities.
Tens of thousands of children dying every day for lack of safe drinking water, and I complained that for a few hours I didn’t have ice water!
Visit the Blog Action Day site to learn more about the critical water problems and find out what you can do to help.
+|O:| – WATER IS LIFE! Thanks for blogging about water, our dearest resource! People need to come together on this important issue! Here’s a link to my article about water. Thanks again for helping us spread the word!
Thank you, Dave. Your post was excellent–filled with lots of information.
Wow! Those statistics floored me.
Yeah, Dominique, especially so soon after complaining about having to drink lukewarm water.
Another wake up call from you Lilli,
It’s amazing how quickly we take what is readily available for granted. Be it love, water or safety – so many people struggle through their daily lives just trying to stay alive. I wonder if it’s one of the natural parts of human behaviour to focus on what’s missing?
While we can’t help them all, we can at least work on the daily practise of counting and appreciating our blessings.
Thanks again.
Dave.
dave,
I just can’t imagine not having potable water. We are so blessed.
“Tens of thousands of children dying every day for lack of safe drinking water, and I complained that for a few hours I didn’t have ice water!” – The facts are very sad Lillie. I have watched the video, and its a great ‘impact’ sort of video, which is really quite saddening.
I know the official day has past, but to help promote the world, you cna be almost certain that I will have written an article about this soon.
Thanks Lillie (I am not sure a smiley face is appropriate this time)
Christopher
Christopher,
It really is sad—I really hadn’t understood the magnitude of the problem before. I’ll look forward to your post. It’s never too late.
Post written and scheduled for Wednesday, please check my philosophy blog then, or click this link on Wednesday Blog Action Day
Christopher,
I subscribe to your blog, so I’ll see in the normal course of reading blogs.
Okay Lillie
Nice to here that you are subscribed
Christopher,
If I read a blog, I subscribe to it. If I have to make a special effort to get there … I don’t go.
Article live Lillie…
Christopher Roberts Philosophy Blog: ‘Blog Action Day’ article
Thanks, Christopher, for posting about water and for saying the kind things you did about my blog.
its ok Lillie
Thanks again.
Lillie, like you I have had temporary times of being without water the way I like it. Reading about the scarcity of water around the world was eye opening for me and made me realize again how blessed I am to have an abundance of water.
Karen,
We are so blessed in so many ways and we so often take our blessings for granted.
Another great story on how we take things for granted. I have seen some filthy waterways in my travels and always feel sorry for anyone living downstream. 2 million tons, that is mindboggling.
Sensei,
Appalling, isn’t it? You wonder how people can pollute so badly, but in many cases, it’s probably lots of little tiny things that each person doesn’t think matters—but added together, they matter.
Our body, composed primarily of water, requires sufficient daily water replacement in order to function efficiently. It’s just so sad that not everyone is aware to this miracle of life. I hope let’s be sensitive and do our share in conserving water and reach out to those in need of them.
Jane,
I hadn’t even thought of how much of our bodies are composed of water. That’s an important point.
The irony is that there’s so much water on Earth and still there are children who suffer from thirst. We waste so much water by being irresponsible, thinking that there’s plenty left, that we don’t realize the harm that we do to ourselves and to the next generations.
Jenny,
Yes, we take water granted and assume there will always be plenty of safe water for us to drink, not even realizing how many places in the world that doesn’t exist.
As my old basketball coach used to say…
“I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man that had no feet”…
So true, John, so true.
It is always hard to appreciate what we had since birth. Most kids in my district don’t even drink plain water, its soft drinks, fruit juice or nothing. They need to see more of the world
peter,
We do tend to accept whatever we’ve always known as normal—both good and bad. My mother was born blind in one eye. Back when she was a child, kids weren’t given routine eye exams, and no one ever realized it. After she and my father married, he taught her to drive. When she took the test for her license, the examiner checked her eyes. He asked her to cover up her right eye and read with the left and she looked at him like he was crazy and said, “Why would I do that? I can’t see anything that way!” She really didn’t know you were supposed to see out of both eyes.
A little far afield of the topic of water, but another example that we base our attitudes and behaviors to a great extent on own experiences. Kids in the Western world have never been in a situation where they didn’t have a choice of drinks of all kinds so that’s what they expect and feel entitled to.
[...] the past it has focused on poverty and other causes, but this year it has focused on water.I read Lillie’s post on Blog Action Day and as most of her posts do, it got me thinking. So I investigated Blog Action Day, and had a look [...]
Such a great post with informative statistics. If only everyone understood how rough life is outside of our confines :/
ryan,
We are so accustomed to our easy lives that we tend to take them for granted and have no idea of the hardships other people undergo.
Hi Lilli, Yes you raise some very important points here – far too many people don’t have access to clean drinking water – and I believe despite the efforts of well-meaning people the problem is going to get far worse over this century as global resources become more scarce.
I guess we can only try and do or bit to help as you are by raising the issue. Reminds me of the story of the women on the beach with the starfishes – you might not help them all – but my guess is that you’re helping more than you know.
Thank you,
R.
Ross,
I love the example of the woman on the beach putting starfish back in the water: “I made a difference for that one.” We can’t look at the magnitude of the problem but at the little we can do that will make a difference for someone.
It really does put things in perspective, when we see or hear about people who are a lot worse off than us. I had a tumor on my ankle and had 5 operations, and felt like i was the unluckiest person in the world. But i can still walk, and when you think of some of the other people with terminal illnesses in hospital, my problems don’t seem so bad!
Elliot,
It’s easy to get wrapped up in our own problems and feel sorry for ourselves until, as you say, we see what problems other people have. Then ours appear much smaller.