World Water Day
I have been lax in blogging lately for a number of reasons, the primary reason being that I have been unable to decide in just what direction I want my blogging future to go. I’ve blogged for years and on a variety of different subjects from food to poetry to sustainability, and I’ve learned that it’s easy to get burned out once blogging turns from a hobby into a chore. I never want writing to become a chore, and so I am trying to be careful about what I choose to blog, so that I don’t get trapped in a niche I can’t get out of.
But something grave enough to draw me out of my blogging hiatus is going on. Tomorrow, 22 March 2010, is World Water Day, a day of global awareness and a call to action for the potable water crisis that our planet is facing. It’s estimated that about 900 million people around the world are without access to safe drinking water, and that about 2.6 billion people – that’s roughly 40% of the world’s population – lack basic sanitation and sewage systems. More children die globally from water deprivation and sanitation-related disease than of any other cause.
What’s more, with global warming placing ever-increasing strain on world resources, the world’s water problems are only projected to get worse, if nothing is done to come to a solution. As ocean levels rise, the salination of groundwater in low-lying coastal areas where seepage can occur will destroy existing sources of drinking water. Shifting climate will cause a change in precipitation patterns, often leading to less rainfall and snowfall, especially in places where annual precipitation is low and water availability is scarce already. And with increasing global temperatures, the stores of drinking water which do exist become more susceptible to harboring disease.
When was the last time you turned on your water tap and wondered whether potable water would run out of the spout? We in America and other industrialized nations are fortunate enough, at this present moment, to have access to all the clean, safe drinking water we want. And we waste it. We consume massive quantities of it in the production of waste materials, including millions of those horrid plastic bottles which house the bottled water that so many of us obsessively buy, drink, and then discard (it’s estimated that only 10% of those bottles get recycled). We dump hundreds of gallons of it on our lawns. We let our taps run freely, while in parts of the world we haven’t seen and cannot envision, human populations are in crisis over this essential building block of life. Water. How often do we think about the availability of water?
World Water Day is a chance to do just that. It’s a chance for all of us to become more versed in the issues surrounding potable drinking water. It’s a call to awareness and a call to action. As the world’s rich and privileged society, we are the ones in the position to demand aid on behalf of the poor, the deprived, and the voiceless. Our governments are in the position to come together in a coalition to end these problems, to distribute water to those who do not have it in adequate supply, to help the most affected cities and societies build the water distribution and sanitation infrastructure which they need but haven’t the resources to build for themselves. And we are in the position to take action against the forces of global warming which threaten all human beings but put those societies which are already poor and marginalized on the front lines.
Go to the World Water Day website to read more. Make a pledge to curb wastefulness in your own life. Say no to bottled water. Say yes to a cooperative effort to address these issues globally. Participate in lobbying activities. Spread the word about the water crisis. Be aware. Be aware, and live the change.
