Recently, our area has had quite the spout of interesting weather. We’ve had heavy rains which caused major flooding. We also faced heavy snow and freezing temperatures. Low temperatures have led to pipes freezing and water main breaks leaving many communities under boil orders or being without water completely for some time. Right now, water is something probably no one would like to discuss. But water is not all bad considering our country has access to it so easily. Approaching in March is “World Water Day.” The day calls attention to the water crisis some countries are facing. Today, close to 2 billion people live without safe drinking water at home. Lack of clean drinking water is affecting their health, education and livelihoods. Children often miss days of school to collect clean water for their families.
Aside from the education they are missing, these children are not able to just enjoy being a kid doing things such as playing with friends. Instead, they are focusing efforts on survival. The parents of these children are out of the home, too, constantly in search of clean water. This search takes away valuable time they could use to pursue careers causing the economy to fall tremendously and taking away from just overall family time. Some new inventions such as the LifeStraw could help curve efforts of providing everyone with clean drinking water. The straw removes 99.9999 percent of waterborne bacteria including E. coli. The impact water has is astonishing. It’s so easy to take it for granted as it is available to us in excess but next time you turn on the faucet take a second to appreciate the blessing.
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