Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn and Corey

Can you imagine what it would be like to have no access to clean water for you and your family?

Water is life. Without it, we die. Simple and yet:

1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it’s no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that’s just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

While these facts may be grim, there is hope for real solutions as more and more people around the world are waking up to the clean water crisis. Earlier this year, the UN declared access to clean water a human right and groups like charity: water and Water.org continue to work tirelessly to bring water access to the developing world.

So what can we as individuals do?

1. You can sign this petition to support the U.N.’s work to provide safe, clean drinking water to the world’s poorest populations.

2. You can donate to water.org where just $25 provides one person with water for life!

3. You can help fund water projects via MyCharity: Water where you can set up a page and ask for donations for a birthday or other occasion instead of receiving gifts.

Or you can research other organizations that are providing help to people without access to clean water, working to stop pollution or who have invented items to help women carry water. If you can’t give money, give your signature or your time.

We can each make a difference, dollar by dollar, commitment by commitment, drop by drop.

Note: We are participating in Blog Action Day today. With thousands of other bloggers, we want to raise awareness about the problems with access to water and what we can do to help.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.