Blog Action Day For Water

My son is lucky enough to have water anytime he asks. He’s not even two years old, but when he’s thirsty he hands me his sippy cup, looks at me with his big round eyes and manages to say something that sounds a lot like the word water. I give him water because he's thirsty and I can.

My heart goes out to the people who can’t give their children clean water to drink. How do you tell a thirsty child there is no water too drink or that the only water there is to drink could kill them? All over the world, every day, there are children and adults who don’t have clean water to drink. They drink the dirty water they have, if they even have water or they go thirsty.

The good news is that people like me and you, who are fortunate enough to have clean drinking water can do our small part to make a big difference for the people who don’t have clean water to drink. I joined Blog Action Day to help spread the word about the water crisis. I have also reminded myself that I need to continue to do my part to conserve water whenever I can, as well as find better ways to conserve water. I have also donated money to water.org to help the organization bring clean water to people that need it..

To help inspire you to take action here are five water facts below provided by Maria and the Blog Action Team:

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.

To find out more about Blog Action Day and what you can do to help, visit blogactionday.change.org. You can also follow Blog Action day on Twitter http://twitter.com/blogactionday as well as post a Blog Action Day widget http://blogactionday.change.org/widgets on your blog or website.