A Right, not a Privilege
Jared Shely
Living in
the first world it is easy to forget about water. With the turn of a knob or
the press of a button a steady stream of cheap drinkable water is available,
but for much of the world this isn’t the case. Water the most basic necessity of
human life is often unavailable, dirty, or simply hard to retrieve for people
living in impoverished parts of the world. Millions of people all over the
planet lack water, the basis of life as we know it. Clean easily accessible water
should not be a privilege held only by the rich and dreamed about by the poor.
Every human has a right to clean water and every human has the responsibility
of working towards the fruition of that right for all. Don’t allow yourselves to
shrug off the truth that millions of people will die this year because they
lack access to water and proper sanitation. A refusal to act is a death
sentence for millions of men, women, and children.
The lack of
clean drinking water is the number one cause of death for children under the
age of five and causes 3.4 million deaths a year. In the time it took for me to
speak these last two sentences a child died from a water related disease. Taking
water for granted is easy when it’s something so ample and easily accessible that
you can literally waste thousands of gallons a year, but for children living in
impoverished countries in Africa, some of whom have to walk upwards of six
miles a day to retrieve water, it is not so easy. Millions of women and
children living in Africa walk six miles a day to retrieve water for cooking,
drinking, and cleaning, and the five gallons of water weighing over 40 pounds
that they carry are undoubtedly polluted and dirty. That water isn’t taken for
granted. The average American will use 20 times those 5 gallons of water a day
never thinking twice about the girl in Africa bearing the burden of her family’s
survival at the personal cost of calories and time. How can a young child break
the cycle of hunger when she has to burn 1,000 calories a day walking to
retrieve water for her family if she’s lucky enough to only have to make one
trip? How can she break the cycle of poverty perpetuated by a lack of education
if she has to spend valuable day light hours which should be devoted on
education, walking to retrieve water? The lack of access to clean water isn’t simply
an issue of thirst. Human beings drinking dirty water can contract countless
diseases. Hunger stricken people living in the third world who don’t live near
water must walk to retrieve it burning valuable calories that their bodies
need. Children forced to collect water for their families on long walks lose valuable
day light hours that are desperately needed for education. To improve the
health, hunger, and education of the third world we must first recognize their
right to water.
Water, the
gateway to full bills of health, full stomachs, and full classrooms, isn’t a privilege
to be held by the few, but a right that must be guaranteed to the many. The few
are simply gifted with the privilege of guaranteeing that right. You have spent your life blessed with pure
water at the touch of your finger tips. In those 16 years of your life 54.4
million people have died from water related causes. This means that in your
lifetime over half a million people have died from something that’s 100%
preventable. The average life expectancy in the United States is 78.2 years. If
the water crisis is not addressed in your life time 266 million people will die
from water related causes. These eye opening statistics aren’t reason to stand
hopeless. The fact that a quarter of a
billion people will die within your life time because you and the rest of the
world still view water as a privilege should drive you to act. In our highly
digital society helping struggling people in the world has never been so easy. With
the click of a mouse you can donate money to organizations like UNICEF, Active
Water and the Red Cross. Across the planet countless organizations are working
to dig wells, build water filters, and create water collection tanks to meet
the needs of people who previously have been denied the right to clean water.
From Eastern Kentucky to East Africa people lack access to clean water and each
one of us stands in a prime position to help. If knowing that 844 million
people lack safe drinking water appalls you, then I beg you not to simply hear
my words and then forget what I say like a man who sees his reflection in the
mirror only to forget what it looks like.
I’m challenging you to care that millions of
people are struggling to survive because if you care and you recognize the need
at hand, then you will realize your need to act. Reach out to organizations who
work to provide clean water. Donating money is the easiest way to help, but you
don’t have to be a rich benefactor to be able to help. Simply giving $1 a month
can provide a person in Africa clean drinking water for a month. Sacrificing 1
soda a month could offer life to another human being. The world in which we
live is driven by consumerism and self-fulfillment, but to save lives some of
these tendencies have to be pushed aside. Sacrifice a little to provide someone
else with a lot. Last year I
participated in a free water fast an experience in which I only drank free tap
water and donated what I would have spent on other drinks to an organization
dedicated to providing clean drinking water to those in need. A free water fast
only costs money you would have already spent and it could change the lives of
several people. Sacrifice some sugary beverage that only harms your health for
the sake of the health of someone who without your generosity might not live
another year. A little money goes a long way, but if you lack money time is
just as valuable of a commodity. Even if you don’t want to donate money to an
organization there are plenty of organizations that organize trips both
domestic and international to dig wells and alleviate the need for water. There
is no reason why you can’t do something. A handful of pocket change can provide
a month worth of water.
We live in a world where information
can travel from one side of the planet to the other in a matter of seconds, one
can travel from coast to coast in a matter of hours, and 844 million people
lack access to clean drinking water. How can a world so bent on progress and
devoted to human rights allow 1 in every 8 people to face the uncertain future
of thirst, disease, and lack of education all because they don’t have access to
water? Don’t let the warning that inaction will lead to the deaths of 266
million people during your lifetime be taken lightly. It is your duty as a
human being blessed with the capabilities of the first world to reach out and
make sure that you don’t live the same way tomorrow that you did today. If you
have done nothing for people living without access to clean water before, then
maybe you just didn’t know that such a terrible truth was reality, but tomorrow
you will have no excuse. I challenge you to care. I challenge you to act.
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