Rethink Water

After watching Flow, a documentary that examines water politics, I’ve been thinking about my water consumption a lot more. I find myself being thankful that baby Kai has clean water to drink. Sure, we all had to stop watering lawns due to the California drought, but the issue of water conservation is so much deeper than that.

Did anyone see the recent commercial by Charity:Water where American moms are standing in line trying to collect water in a barrel? One mother pours the brown dusty water into her child’s glass. The tag line, “Imagine drinking this”. It’s powerful and you realize that we are spoiled. How many times have you left unfinished water out on the counter? I do it all the time because water comes out of our faucets in our homes. In many parts of the world, young children have to walk miles barefoot in the hot sun to collect clean water. Even when they arrive, they have no idea what time the faucet will turn on or if there will be enough water for them. Most of the time, the water is not free either. Imagine that.

It’s easy to take water for granted. I do.

Interesting statistics from the Flow website:

• Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.
(www.charitywater.org)
• While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five.
(www.charitywater.org)
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
(www.water.org)
• Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.
CBS News, FLOW.
• Californiaʼs water supply is running out – it has about 20 years of water left in the state.
Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant and co-author of Blue Gold, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, FLOW.
• There are over 116,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into public water supply systems.
William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World, FLOW.
• In Bolivia nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water.
Jim Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center in Bolivia, FLOW.

To learn more visit unwater.