Pure Water for the World

Water, Water Everywhere but not a Clean Drop to Drink

Water is fundamental to survival. Go without it for a short time, and we would die. Although 71 percent of the earth’s surface is covered by water only 2.5 percent of the earth’s water is fresh and approximately 2/3 of that is locked up in glaciers and permanent snow cover.

But clean, safe drinking water is not available to over 1.2 billion people (28 percent of the world population). And more than twice that number lack access to adequate sanitation, which is part of the problem. In less time than it takes to read this material, 20 children will have died because of unsafe water.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million children, most under the age of 5, die every year of diarrheal disease caused by drinking contaminated water. Approximately 10 percent of those living in developing countries are infected with intestinal worms. 4 billion cases of water-born diarrhea occur annually. 6 million people are blind from trachoma. Large numbers of people are subjected to cholera and typhoid fever epidemics. And millions of people are adversely affected by the arsenic and other contaminates found in unsafe water. All told, water-related diseases, which are usually easy to prevent or to treat and are rarely seen in the affluent world, account for 80 percent of illnesses and deaths in the developing world. Imagine if 18 fully-loaded jumbo jets with children were to fall from the sky for just one day what the news would be reporting. But, that is what happens every day because of contaminated water.

About 6000 children – “the equivalent of 18 fully loaded jumbo jets” – die. Every 15 seconds, a child dies in our world from the effects of poor water quality.

Sick children cannot attend school. Parents of sick children cannot work on a regular basis. Women have more children because of the anticipated deaths. Having clean, safe drinking water is the first step to break the cycle of poverty in which many people are trapped.

This helps explain a young boy’s response to a question we often hear in the United States but could not imagine the answer. He was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” His response, “Alive.”

An adequate supply of clean, safe drinking water is urgently needed around the world. Clean, safe drinking water should be a basic human right because it is so critical to life. Every time you turn on the tap “for whatever purpose” remember how fortunate you are. Remember those who suffer because they cannot have a glass of clean, safe drinking water. Remember that one person can make a difference “one person at a time”.

We have the means; we only need the will. Will you help us?