Water Water, Everywhere, And None of It Is Potable? What Happened?

Honestly, we happened. Human beings are the only mammals who can screw up drinking water. It takes opposable thumbs, apathy, and a big streak of selfishness to waste the resources we waste every single day. It’s the prize we get for being at the absolute top of the food chain, and it is a responsibility we squander with reckless abandon every second of our lives. We call it civilization, or industrialization, or modernization, or any number of -zations, but it still does not excuse the fact we are wasters. Keeping in mind that the human body can go without water for an entire week before dying, how many ‘American Idol’ programs can you live without? As a country, we spend over 100 times more on entertainment ( TV, movies, theme parks, birthday parties, gambling) than we do at guaranteeing our clean water supply; however, when a major natural disaster occurs, we complain that we have to boil water in order to drink it. Sounds gloomy, doesn’t it? Let’s brighten our mood with a few cheerful statistics!

Look! Something Shiny!

Yup! It’s shiny indeed! Remember, the human body can live an ENTIRE week without water, and 1 BILLION people do not have access to clean drinking water. Roughly every 8 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation. Some sources estimate that in 15 years or so, the number of people with no access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities will go up to 2 billion people. Roughly 200,000,000 hours a DAY are spent by the women and children of underdeveloped nations just WALKING to get drinking water. Roughly 70% of our water use is for agricultural irrigation, meaning on one level we are using one of our irreplaceable resources to grow…tobacco. In some developing nations, almost 75 percent of the population is without clean, safe drinking water. Here in the United States, we have a good supply of drinking water, but we just dump waste (point source pollution, such as sewage run-off and industrial waste water) and poison into ours (non-point source pollution, such as vehicle exhaust and fertilizer run-off) to keep the bar level. Industry in the United States is also a huge water user, with over 39,000 gallons needed to make a single automobile, and over 1800 gallons to refine one barrel of crude oil. Of course, once we have manufactured the car and refined the barrel of oil into gasoline, then we can drive the car for 10 years and pollute the water even more with vehicle exhaust. Now that we have brightened the mood some, let’s talk about something even better!

‘Gloom, Despair, And Agony On Me…’

There is nothing humorous or uplifting about 1 billion people not having access to clean drinking water. This problem above all others is one that should be the waking concern of every single Head of State on Earth. That being said, how can we help alleviate this problem at home? What can we do to turn the tide and give 1.8 million children another chance at life this year? How do we begin to make a dent in this problem? Well, for starters we can:

* Put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank. If the color leaks into the bowl without flushing, you have a leak in the flapper. It is easy to fix, and that cuts down on the hidden water loss in your home. Plus, the kids love it when you stuff like this!
* Check the water meter periodically and see if it is turning with all of your faucets off. If it is, you might have a leak somewhere. Or it might just be the neighbor watering his lawn with your hose again.
*If you wash dishes by hand, set up a 2 compartment sink system, one with wash water (soap) and one for rinse water (no soap) instead of running from the tap the entire time.
*If you are one of those people who insist on a perfect lawn, make sure that your sprinkler heads are actually watering the lawn, and not the sidewalk, street, or neighbor’s car. If you want to soak down your neighbor, use a super soaker; however, use his water hose to fill it up.
* If your shower can fill a 1 gallon bucket in under 20 seconds, you might want to consider a more efficient shower head. If your shower can fill up a swimming pool in under 20 seconds, you might want to call a plumber.
* Young children can shower together. So can consenting adults. It is a lot easier to wash your back that way.
* Keep a pitcher of cold water in the refrigerator. This makes sure that the water goes down you instead of down the drain. Also, if you have teenagers or a husband in the house, make sure there are suitable consequences for not refilling the water pitcher ( such as grass mowing, garbage removal, or ironing) that you can use as punishment. This will cut down on the housework!
*When cleaning out your fish tanks, give the old water to your plants. NOTE: do NOT do this if it is a salt water aquarium.
*Ask your local water board how much they charge for residential water. Then ask them how much they charge farmers for irrigation water. Ask your local water board ‘Why is there such a discrepancy in the amount of money charged for the same product?’ If the answer is something like ‘Because they use so much water a day’, give her a lesson in supply and demand economics. Make sure she understands that the supply is LIMITED.
*When driving by an irrigated field, stop and turn off the water. If the farmer doesn’t notice, then they were wasting water. If the farmer does notice, they are still wasting water. You get bonus points if it is a tobacco field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvfnkML0APk

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1jcGDp883Q