Water Scarcity - A Problem Around the World
Helping Those Without Clean Water
I know this is a hub that many would rather not read but I implore you, please read this and help me to brainstorm methods to help.
I mentioned earlier this week that I attended a comedy show at a local church with a woman as the headliner named Chonda. She is a very funny lady. I do believe that many will be hearing her name more as Hollywood has taken an interest in her humor and her message.
What I did not mention is that she has a gentleman who is on her tour with her. His name is Warren Barfield. He wrote Love Is Not A Fight which is one of the theme songs for Fireproof.Warren tells this humorous story of having a fight with his wife that led to the lyrics of the song. He too has an important message and a cause. His message has touched me and I needed to do some research and feel compelled to take action to do something about the lack of fresh water in the world. Warren spoke about his observation of taking a trip to see one of the little boys that he adopted via a $35.00 donation each month. He said that he watching the village people trek for one solid hour to literally fight for a bit of water that is not even as fresh as most of our toilet bowls.
What truly touched his heart though was watching a little boy standing back with an empty container that was not even a full gallon. He learned that as he took his water bottle filled with fresh water in it from his back pocket and took a swig of water that the little boy walked every day to get water for his family. However, being a small boy he could not enter the battling adults who each were competing to get water for their own empty containers for their families.
Warren told of judging the adults smugly and thinking to himself that they should just cooperate and form a line to gain access to the minimal water available. Then he thought of his own young son whom he feels is the smartest, most handsome child in the world. He realized that if water was limited as it was in the community he was visiting that he would “fight” for his son also to obtain the limited water. He felt ashamed for judging these people for having the same goal. Warren took the jug from the little boy and fought through the crowds and filled it with water.
Warren stated that the temperature was about one hundred degrees that day. He hiked back to the village with the other villagers and when they returned back he commented that he could not believe that the little boy walked that hour each day to get water for his family. He was informed that the little boy that he helped actually lived another hour away in another village.
Warren said he went home and counted the resources that he had in his home to obtain fresh water. He and his expectant wife thought about how they complained at times about petty little things when they had no less than 17 resources for water fresher than the one in the third world country he had just returned from. He realized that his 17 resources were not even good enough for their family as they always went out and purchased bottled water.
Within a few weeks he and his wife went out to dinner, which cost them $35.00. They realized that they had just spent money on a meal when they had food at home and the $35.00 could have taken care of another child for an entire month. They opted to adopt another child each month with the $35.00.
Now the great thing about the money being spent was the story he told of receiving a letter from one of the families saying that they no longer needed the $35.00 each month as it had allowed the family to get on their feet and to become independent. They were extremely grateful for the support while it was needed but they could not accept it any longer now that they were able to support themselves. Warren and his wife adopted a different family hoping that the same independence could be obtained for another family as well.
Warren now carts photos of children around the world and hopes that people will adopt the children who are in great need.
Water scarcity is a big problem. Even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall or freshwater. The issues stem from the methods in which water is conserved or distributed. Thus, the quality of water becomes a problem. In many places the population of people outweighs the availability of fresh water. When there is not enough water for people, there is certainly a scarcity of water to meet the demands of farms, industry and the environment in general.This lack of water leads waste water being used for agricultural production in poor urban and rural communities. Therefore people are consuming food irrigated by wastewater that often contains disease-causing organisms.
I, like many others, hear such a message and tend to want to compartmentalize the information and file it under the category of “What can I do about it?” and move on. However, the realization that water scarcity affects one in every three people on EVERY continent really speaks to me. Things are only going to worsen as we encounter continued population growth.
To put it into even more context, almost one fifth of the world’s population live in areas where water is extremely scarce. That equates to about 1.2 billion people with limited water resources.
Such water scarcity is leading to the billion plus people drinking unsafe water. They bathe and wash their clothing in unclean water. Their homes must also be cleaned with unsanitary water. These conditions lead to an increase in diarrhea diseases as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery, and other infections as well. Trachoma is an eye infection that can lead to blindness, plague and typhus, which is another reality for those without clean water.
Those mentioned in Warren’s story transport water and must store it in their homes. The water becomes further contaminated as mosquitoes use it as a breeding ground. They carry dengue fever, malaria and other such diseases as schistosomiasis, a severe illness.
My father always taught me that having wealth equates with responsibility. I cannot live in my beautiful home and know these realities without trying to do something. We need resources for better water management around the world.
Knowing that water is an essential resource to sustain life, we must learn new ways of helping communities suffering with fresh water scarcity. They need education learning to conserve and protect the resource in their daily lives.
So what can we do about it?
The first thing to do is to become aware that there is such an extreme need. We need to understand the depth of the problems. This blog is only touching the surface for those of us who were not knowledgeable of the seriousness of the problem.
Next, we need to understand methods that can be used to help to counteract the scarcity of water issues. I assure you that I will be following up this blog with many methods that are being implemented presently to help this very serious problem.
I am not going to recommend any programs at this point because I do not know enough about which programs to support. I am very concerned with the abuse of funding charities, which only leads to skepticism from people who are willing to help but have pulled back as they just do not know who to trust. I assure you that when I do recommend a program or programs, it/they will be avenues that I have researched thoroughly and have complete confidence in.
I will ask that today as you pour yourself a cold drink that you take a moment and be thankful and say a prayer for those who are in need.
I have just joined a new site that I have written about, Varolo. I have decided that any money generated from my “village” is going to be donated to this cause. I will be seeking other venues out as well. If you would like to sign up with our Village to change the world's water challenges click here.
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Project Concern International
Project Concern International is a particular organization that I am going to research thoroughly as I am a real proponent of teaching people to be able to help themselves. When we just hand out money to keep people going, the streamline of revenue must go on endlessly but when we teach people to help themselves, we can STOP the problems.
