World Water Crisis | Teen Ink

World Water Crisis

June 17, 2009
By Rishabh Aggarwal BRONZE, Los Angles, California
Rishabh Aggarwal BRONZE, Los Angles, California
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Our planet earth is in a state of environmental decline. We are in the midst of a global water crisis. Every day people are dying due to unsafe and unclean water. We are slowly depleting our planet’s water supply and we must take action to replenish our earth. This widespread suffering can be alleviated with your help. Every little step we take goes a long way. Half the battle is knowing and recognizing the problem, so raise awareness
about this situation and bring the earth one step closer to solving this crisis.
This water crisis is due to many things, such as the declining climate changes of our planet, a lack of infrastructure in many countries, as well as pollution from our population. In third world countries the lack of infrastructure and safe water is so severe that some children have to trek as much as six miles every day to get water for their families. Some may say that this cannot be a severe crisis as approximately 71 % of the earth’s surface is covered in water. However oceanic water is not consumable to humans, water from seas is salinated and therefore inconsumable. There is a process called desalination that successfully removes all salt content from water. However this process is costly and requires much energy and fuel which further pollutes our water. Here are some quick facts (from www.water.org on the severity of this situation.

Every fifteen seconds a child dies from a water related disease

884 million people lack access to safe water

3.575 million people die from water related diseases each year

2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation

One in eight people lack access to safe water

1.2 billion people have no sanitation facilities at all

At any given time, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease

About 0.007% of the worlds fresh water is readily accessible for human consumption and

The average American taking a five minute shower uses more water than a person in a slum uses in a day
This crisis is not a crisis that can be solved overnight. However all good things take time and in time we can put an end to the world water crisis. How can you help? Well by exploring this website you already have! Knowledge is power and in this situation that saying grows tenfold. Raising awareness is the first step to solving this crisis. That is the main objective of this website to raise awareness about this global issue. You can do things such as join organizations; participate in mass letter writing campaigns. I myself recently participated and convinced my whole family to write letters to the governor of our state to reduce pollution into Barnegat Bay. Something as simple as this can go a long way. Another more direct approach is to directly help the needy and give the gift of water. You can do this by donating and joining many already established organizations and donating. Any one of the links below will take you to a trusted website where you can make a difference. These are all great campaigns to help solve this water crisis: http://www.one.org/, http://water.org/index.aspx, http://www.amnesty.org/. Any thing you can do helps. Most importantly of all you can make a difference in the way you live your life. Conserve water and conserve energy, before you take a half an hour long shower think about the people that have to walk for six miles only to bring back half a pale of water for their families. No matter how insignificant things like raising awareness bring us one step closer to success.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.