By the time you finish reading this article four children will have died as a result of unclean? water. Pause for a minute and meditate on this daunting fact. It is a harsh reality and everyday part of life that one in five African children face. A clean glass of water to quench your thirst, a relaxing hot bath before bed or even the simple ability to use an actual?toilet, flush it and wash? your hands afterwards — all daily activities most of us not only take for granted but never stop to even recognize because it is a natural part of our lives.
Water, one of the most essential elements of life, something we cannot live without, something so abundant and plentiful for some, yet scarce and precious for others. Just to put this into some perspective, here are a few facts about water scarcity:
- Over?3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes.??99 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries.
- 780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.
- ‘[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.’
- An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.
- Diarrhea, the second leading cause of death among children under five in the world, claims more lives than malaria, AIDS and measles combined.
- Over 2.5 times more people lack water than live in the United States.
- More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
Something to consider the next time we’re complaining about any number of our first world problems. You know, like having to wait in long lines at the store, the cost of a latte at Starbucks going up or how the?referee cheated the Cowboys out of a win by making?a bad call the final quarter.
Remember when you were little and your mother used to tell you to eat your food because there were children starving in Africa? Well today, in 2013, those African children, children like four year-old Nkaitole from Amboseli, Kenya, will not live long enough to see their fifth birthday as a result of lack of clean water.? And guess what, we have the means to prevent it.
Edited by DH
