Clean Water Access Awareness Day

Water is one of those things most of us take for granted. We don't think twice about turning on the faucet or being able to get a clean drink of water. However, around the world there is a clean water crisis.





Here are some interesting facts shared by the Vincentian blog action team. For more details about each fact go to : http://famvin.org/en/archive/startling-facts-about-water?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FamvinEnglish+%28FAMVIN%3A+The+International+Vincentian+Family%29




1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world.

The United Nations has declared access to clean water a human right. There are many organizations working on making access to clean water a reality. A project of our Sisters in Kenya is to help the people install a local well, so that there is clean water available locally.

Another modern dynamic is the selling of bottled water. This promotes water being a commodity rather than as people having a right to access. Companies set up bottling of water and using the local water, they sell it back to the locals. In some developing countries, water sources have been sold to companies and taken from the local people only to have the water sold to them.



My community, the Daughters of Charity, has made a commitment to avoid using any bottled water. This is 2 fold in purpose. First, it reduces the profits made by companies which use and sell water at great profits that which should be accessible at a reasonable price to all people. Secondly, our landfills are full of the plastic disposible bottles. It takes a little more planning, but we can use reusable water bottles and fill them up from the faucet (some need filters).



For more information on this blog action day on water, go to: blogactionday.change.org



Here is a video about emergence and effect of bottled water in our society. I recommend the one on "The Story of Stuff" also.