How Big of a Reward is Water Really?

So this post is going to be all about the issue of clean water-or lack of clean water to people all around the world and how it affects those people and our society today.  I want to start off with a video that I thought was pretty amazing.  It basically says what the problem of the dirty water is and the effect that it has to nearly a billion people.

I think that the issue of water really is very serious.  I mean there's seven billion people in this world and nearly one billion people are drinking dirty water filled with poop, urine, germs, and many other things.  So that means that one in seven people are drinking dirty water a day.  Another shocking statistic is this

So, around 1,560,000 people die every year just because they can't drink clean water.  So what really are the effects of having dirty water?
-A loss of time.  In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours just to get water.  To give you a little bit of a view of how much that is, there are only 8, 760 hours in a year.  In those 40 billion hours, those people are missing out on much.  If you are a child, you are missing out on an education.  If you are an adult, you are missing out on a job.  You are spending hours a day just to walk to get the water instead of going to school or working.
-A drop in the economy.  Did you know that in Africa alone, there is a loss of $28 billion just because of the lack of good water and sanitation.  Also, another shocking fact is that 11% of some of the poorest household's income is spent on water.  Could you imagine having to spend that much money one water especially when you have a low income?
-Supply of food.  I know I was actually surprised to see this one but it does make sense.  Feeding the world takes up 90% of the freshwater.  Since Africa doesn't have the water for irrigation, their supply of food is cut short.
-And the most obvious, disease.  The water is filled with deadly germs.  This leads to diarrhea, cholera, dysentary, amoebas, parasites, e. coli poisoning, schitzomonasis, giardia, and much more.


And finally to finish the facts, what does clean really do to the deaths that are caused by dirty water?

Now the big question that I've been wondering is how do I help out?  I'm a teenager who doesn't have a job and feels really awkward asking other people for money.  I've always wanted to be able to help others out but I just come to a blank as to how.


Honestly, the biggest thing is to raise awareness.  Do you really think that many people know how detrimental dirty water is?  Do you really think that many people are aware of how lucky they are because they have clean water?  Imagine if everyone in the world really knew of how serious this issue is.  The issue of the need to have clean water would go away in a heartbeat.


Another idea is do a walk.  Get a couple of your friends involved and make it an event.  I was looking at the Do Something site and I thought that the idea was really cool, so cool that I think I'm going to plan to do a walk.  I don't think I could get it done by April 13, but hey it's better late then never!  If you're interested in doing a walk, click here.


And one more thing!  There's this website called myWaterProject where you can create a fundraising page and learn more about the issue of clean water.  If you're interested in doing that, click here.


To finish off this post, I'd like to share something that I think that all of the Hunger Games fans would enjoy.  I found this on the Do Something site.

In the ‘Hunger Games’ people have to fight for resources, but that’s just a book. In reality, people struggle for basic needs every day.

 Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post.  I hope you enjoyed it and learned much about the issue of clean water. :D