Saturday, October 16, 2010

Water (life + death)


Let's talk about water. Why water?

He tells us about the spa they've bought and the logistics of installation. Later, I hear about the new pool, mapped out in the backyard. Fingers crossed, it's ready for the pool party.

Some women walk miles to bring water for their families to drink. Some of us can turn a tap and it flows unstinted.

There are places where children die because they drink water that's not clean enough. It carries infections and their under-nourished bodies cannot retain enough water to keep functioning. Nearly 38 000 die each week.

There's a river system winding its way from Queensland, to the sea, in South Australia. It supports irrigation to much of our fertile farmland. The plan released last week proposes keeping more of the water in the river, so it can flow. But solutions are not simple when people farm to support families and homes, and communities are built intertwined with rivers.

Today is Blog Action Day (Oct 15th) and the focus is Water. About 1 billion people do not have access to safe water, according to Change.org, who have powered this blog event.

So why don't we...
  • donate to a development organisation that works to work to aid development, including safe water - such as TEAR Australia or Water Aid.
  • give our birthday (or Christmas) gifts to development, like this.
  • learn more about ways we can use water wisely. Work out what we use.
  • stop buying water in plastic bottles - I'm going to get a re-usable drink bottle.
  • think about the water needed to make what we wear, drive and eat.

Change.org|Start Petition

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