Water is a life giving substance! We are confident that life as we know it cannot exist without the presence of clean water. We can live weeks without food but only days without water. Recent tests on the moon were designed to detect any presence of water, for eventual colonization would be impossible without it. The earth is not short of water as such. The 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth divided by the current population, 5.8 billion, reveals that we have 56 billion gallons apiece. For sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, the average person in the world has a daily requirement of about 13.2 gallons of water. That means the world contains enough water to last each of us over 11 million years (not counting population growth)! That doesn’t take into consideration the free recycling system provided for us called evaporation and condensation.
Of course, this is a little misleading for not all (or even most) of this water on earth is in a useable form. Ninety-eight percent of the water on the planet is ocean salt water. Of the 2% of the planet's fresh water, 1.6% is locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Another 0.36% is found underground in aquifers and wells. A mere trifle, just .036% of the planet's total water supply, is found in fresh water lakes and rivers. This is still 392 million gallons each, but that isn’t much compared with the 56 billion gallons we could have. The sobering fact is that only about 0.007% of all water on earth (and less than 1% of the world’s fresh water) is accessible for direct human use.
Another problem is that the available useable water is not distributed evenly to the population. For example, the average American uses more water in one shower than most third world people use in a whole day. Nearly one billion people lack access to safe water. Nearly one billion people of the world lack access to safe water. That amounts to about one in eight people. Further, two and a half billion do not have access to improved sanitation, which means they are unable or don’t bother to separate drinking water from wastewater.
Major health issues throughout the world result from a lack of sanitary drinking water. One estimate is that half of all those in hospital beds at any one time are there because of a water related disease. As a result, a child dies from a water-related disease every 15-20 seconds in the world, usually from diarrhea. That adds up to a staggering 1.4 million children each year. The children in these environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies because of stagnant water supplies. In all, unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene account for 88% of diarrhea cases worldwide.
Polluted water brings death, but also an increase in disease, crime, birth defects, and decreased ability to concentrate in school. In other words, it results in major economic decline. Investing in ways to purify water, or to desalinate the sea are investments that bring returns. On average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation for a third world people provides an economic return for them of eight US dollars.
Some want the western civilization to feel guilty for taking a shower or watering their lawns. This is faulty thinking. Lowering our living standard only borrows their problems. America has sufficient good, clean water because we have learned how to preserve it and where to get it. Our response to criticism should not be guilt but better stewardship and an increased willingness to share our knowledge with others. When we are frugal and generous with our water, we will set a higher standard for other nations to follow.
