World Water Day

Not many people were even aware that yesterday (March 22) was World Water Day. In 1992, the UN General Assembly designated March 22 as “World Water Day” to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide.

Water is an absolute essential to life. Water is something most of us take for granted. But unfortunately, not everyone in the world has access to safe, clean drinking water. A little known fact is that the Global water crisis is the leading cause of death and disease in the world, taking the lives of more than 14,000 people each day, 11,000 of whom are children under age 5.

While everyone in the West has the option to just turn on a tap and fill up whatever container with drinking water, most in the developing world spend a great deal of time every day hauling water from water sources of questionable purity. The average woman in Africa and Asia walks 4 miles each day just to collect water.

This amounts to more than 200 million hours spent every day by women and girls walking to collect water from distant, often polluted sources—time that could be better spent on more productive endeavors such as work and school.

Thankfully, millions more people in developing countries now have a sustainable supply of clean water thanks to innovative programs spearheaded by international aid.

However, an estimated 1.1 billion persons still lack access to an improved water source, and 2.6 billion persons lack access to adequate sanitation. Waterborne diseases account for 4 billion episodes of illness and 2.2 million deaths every year, disproportionately affecting young children.