Water is a unique and fascinating substance! Everyone knows that life cannot exit apart from the presence of clean, liquid water. While we are able to live several weeks without food, we can only live days without water. Recent tests on the moon were designed to detect any presence of water, for eventual colonization would be impossible without it.
The earth is not short of water as such. The 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth divided by the current population, 5.8 billion, reveals that we have 56 billion gallons apiece. For sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, the average person in the world has a daily requirement of about 13.2 gallons of water. Thus we have enough water down here to last each of us over 11 million years (not counting population growth)! That doesn’t take into consideration the free recycling system provided for us called evaporation and condensation.
The problem is that most of this water is unusable in its present form. Ninety-eight percent of the water on the planet is ocean salt water. Of the 2% of the planet’s fresh water, 1.6% is locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Another 0.36% is found underground in aquifers and wells. Only about .036% of the planet’s total water supply is found in lakes and rivers. This is still 392 million gallons each, but that isn’t much compared with the 56 billion gallons we could have. But even of that, less than 1% of the total fresh water, (and 0.007% of all water on earth,) is accessible for our use.
The problem is bad also because useable water is not evenly available to the world population. The average American uses more water taking a five-minute shower than the typical person living in a slum in a developing country uses in a whole day. Nearly one billion people of the world do not have access to safe water. Nearly one billion people of the world lack access to safe water. Also 2.5 billion do not have improved sanitation, meaning they do not have a means to separate drinking water from waste water.
Insufficient sanitary drinking water throughout the world brings with it major health issues. As many as half of all people in hospital beds at any given time are there because of a water related disease. On average a child dies from a water-related disease every 15-20 seconds in the world, and the usual cause is diarrhea. That adds up to a staggering 1.4 million children each year. The children in these environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies because of stagnant water supplies. Think of it: 88% of the cases of diarrhea worldwide are caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene.
Polluted water brings death, but also an increase in disease, crime, birth defects, and decreased ability to concentrate in school. In short, general economic decline is the result. An investment in pure water for a people, or in desalination of the sea, is an investment with big returns. On average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation for a third world people provides an economic return for them of eight US dollars.
Some would have us in the west feel guilty for taking a shower or watering our lawns. This is faulty thinking. Lowering our living standard only borrows their problems. America has good, clean water because we have learned where to find or clean it, and how to preserve it. Our response to criticism should not be guilt but better stewardship and an increased willingness to share our knowledge with others. When our sources of water are conserved and maintained, we set a high standard for others to follow.
But what if you are on well water or city water that has bad taste or odors. You would be benefited by an activated charcoal water filter. The Berkey Water Filter are the best line of activated charcoal filter we are aware of. Check out the Crown Berkey or another model. One amazing feature is that each set of filters they ship with can be re-cleaned to purify up to 6,000 gallons of drinking water.
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