We might be taking water for granted because it is abundant in our area. But far from our knowledge and understanding, millions of people around the world are dying to get a drop of what we are throwing down the drain. If some people can’t get enough water for their own needs, can you imagine them raising animals or cultivating plants to sustain their livelihood? The effects of the scarcity of water, let alone safe drinking water are deadly, and it affects almost 1 billion of the world’s current population. In fact, almost half a billion children under five years old die each year due to water-related diseases. This has sounded alarm bells to people with a heart, making way for clean water organizations to extend their helping hands.
The scarcity or unavailability of water is a big problem. It touches and devastates four major areas of the human way of life.
Where water is scarce, people have no choice but to drink low quality, contaminated water from streams and waterholes. Their efforts to make water available to their children and family members force women and children to walk for miles just to be able to fetch water that isn’t even safe to drink. This is the primary cause of deaths in these areas. People struggle to find water in order to survive, only to die of diseases that the very water they hope to make them last another day brings.
Where water is scarce, poor sanitation is a glaring reality. People have no means of cleaning to remove filth and flush away unwanted wastes, compromising the health of entire communities.
Where water is scarce, it is impossible to grow food and raise animals. It is estimated that 70% of the world’s water resources is used by the agriculture sector while only 10% is consumed for domestic uses. The absence of water means no crops and no animals. Their absence leads to hunger and thirst whih are the two most important aspects of survival.
Where water is scarce, people have no access to education. How can children attend school if all their times are devoted to fetching water for their families? Collecting water might sound easy, but if you have to walk for miles under the scorching heat of the sun just to get water, it becomes a death-march. Children and adolescent boys and girls cannot attend school because they don’t have time and they are too exhausted to attend classes. People in some places don’t even allow their children to go to school at all. Water is far too important than education they don’t want to miss a day collecting water to make their families survive.
Where water is scarce, poverty is prevalent. With no crops, no animals and nothing whatsoever to trade, how can a people gain economic advancement? And how can business thrive in a place when money isn’t even recognized as a necessity? Arid places need to have safe water first before other things can follow. The absence of water in a particular region is driving its own people to constant poverty.
These are the sad and bitter consequences of the scarcity of water. Where there’s plenty of water, children have the luxury of time to attend school while parents go to work to earn money. Having plenty of water in your home, you are blessed. You should be thankful for it. As a gesture of gratitude for what you have, you should share your blessings to the less fortunate ones. The world is in dire need of clean water solutions to alleviate this problem. Now is your chance to answer this call for help.
photo credit for featured image: Pablo Evans (flickr.com)
Lori is a corporate consultant whose experience and area of expertise are on fund administration, debt collection, wealth management and personnel administration. He likes to share his insights about business corporate solutions, sustainability & management, and a lot of human interest stories including health, wellness and self-improvement .