Michael Conway
Diseases caught from unclean water kill more people per year than all forms of violence, including war.
With 98% of the world’s fresh water frozen in glaciers the world’s need for water is becoming greater than ever.
People all over the world are paying the price for unclean and unsafe water. 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are of children under five years old. (www.charitywater.com)
Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery, and other illnesses. Polluted water can contain harmful bacteria like E. coli, salmonella typhi, schistosoma, and Cholera vibrios.
This dirty water may also carry diseases like Hepatitis A, and without the proper water and medicine supply a disease like this may prove fatal (According to www.charitywater.org).
In some cases it is not even the water that is deadly but the trek to get water that can be fatal.
In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking many miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely to make them sick.
Most water tanks can weigh up to about forty pounds when full, and for a small child it can seem like much more.
Time spent walking and resulting diseases keep them from school, work and taking care of their families. (Also according to www.charitywater.com)
Also along their walk, they’re subjected to a greater risk of harassment and sexual assault. Hauling cans of water for long distances takes a toll on the spine and many women experience back pain early in life.
Woodland High School has taken a stand against unhygienic water, and is raising money to buy water filters for the unfortunate people in India.
The Interact club, a volunteer organization in Woodland is collecting money during the advisory period of the day to help pay for a water filter for one family in India who cannot afford or get clean water.
If an advisory can raise a mere thirty-two dollars then they can help provide clean water for a single family of twelve people.
To help motivate each advisory to raise as much money as possible, the advisory who raises the most money will receive a pizza party, at the end of the collection time.
While it may seem like a small amount of money, these sand filters will help out less fortunate people and help ensure that they have clean water to drink. It may seem normal to most people to have water whenever they want it, but water is extremely essential and unfortunately to many people running water is a rare luxury and clean water is necessary but unattainable.
