Liz Grant, REI’s Communications Assistant, discusses the gift of water.

A World Water Crisis

The United Nations Development Report from 2006 sets out this disturbing truth: “Throughout human history, [economic, social and political] progress has depended on access to clean water and on the ability of societies to harness the potential of water as a productive resource. Water for life in the household and water for livelihoods through production are two of the foundations for human development. Yet for a large section of humanity these foundations are not in place.”

The report goes on to explain that not only is access to water “a basic human need and a fundamental human right,” but also that “more than 1 billion people are denied the right to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.”

In fact, the report states that “unclean water is the world’s second biggest killer of children.”

What an incredible statement. The current world population is almost 6.9 billion people. In 2006, the world population was around 6.7 billion people, which meant that at the time the UN’s report was written, nearly one-third of the world’s population did not have access clean water for living, sanitation, or production.

Water Usage in the U.S.A.As a resident of the United States of America, this is an unimaginable phenomenon for me. In the morning, I wake up and use the toilet, which I flush without thinking. Then I wash my face in the tap that comes to a sink inside my house. It is literally four steps away from the bed where I slept that night. I wait until the water is warm to douse my face in it, running the liquid into my palms and down the drain. Then I lather my face in soap and rinse it off.

I walk into the kitchen, where I fill up my coffee pot with four cups of water, and then start it for a morning drink. Then I run to the shower, where I bathe myself almost daily in heated water from the shower head, fifteen minutes at a time.

In the middle of the day, I might throw a load of laundry into the washer, where my clothes churn around and around, being soaped and rinsed in water piped into my house from the city’s reserves. Maybe I’ll throw some dishes in the dishwasher. Maybe I’ll use and flush the toilet again. Maybe I’ll fill up a pot with water to make spaghetti for dinner.

At the end of the day, I’ll wash my face and brush my teeth while the water runs down the drain.

The American Water Works Association conducted a study in 1999 on the amount of residential water used by Americans per day per person. The average American used 18.5 gallons of water per day just by flushing the toilet (that’s 70 liters). She used over 11 and ½ gallons of water in the shower (44 liters), nearly 11 gallons from the faucet, 1 gallon for the dishwasher, 101 gallons to water the lawn, and 10 gallons would leak out of pipes because someone forgot to turn the faucet off completely. All in all, the average American uses 172 gallons of water per day.(On the low end, you might also use as little as 100 gallons a day, according to Water.org)

Water.org asserts that “a bathtub holds 151 liters of water (40 gallons). Someone in a slum may only get 30 liters (8 gallons) for all their daily needs.” This means that while the average American has access to five times the amount of water than someone living in a slum has.

Reality Hits Home

The reality of our water wealth hit home to me a month ago. One day, my husband and I turned on the shower faucet to hot and felt only cold water. Our water heater had broken. Living in Colorado, it is difficult to live comfortably without a functioning water heater.

So we contacted a repair man. And we waited for a response. And we waited some more. Meanwhile, a whole week passed without having access to hot water. Our water was still clean and plentiful, but we found that cold showers were almost unbearable for us. We found ways around it; my husband would try not to stand under the water for more than five seconds at a time, to temper the cold. I resorted to sponge baths and washing my hair in the kitchen sink. Neither of us felt that we got clean that week.

A little over a week from when the water heater broke, the repair man came and installed a new water heater for us. When we told him we’d been without hot water for a week he said in disbelief, “You’ve been without hot water for a week?” It was unthinkable to him to go that long without hot water.

We found ourselves rejoicing every time we turned on the faucet the week after that. “We have hot water!” we’d shout across the house while washing our hands. And then the joy of hot water wore off until it was just a normal and expected occurrence to turn the faucet to “hot” and feel hot water between our fingers.

What to do?

I am humbled by how unbelievably wealthy we are in the United States of America and I am humbled by how, most of the time, we don’t recognize our wealth. We don’t just have clean water available to us whenever we want; we have clean water available to us inside our homes. We have private toilets. We have water heaters that warm our water up for us so that our showers are comfortable. We have water for cooking, for cleaning our houses and our bodies, for drinking, and even for playing (think about how much water is used to let the kids run through the sprinkler in the summer time or how much water it takes to fill up a pool at the YMCA).

A proper response to these facts is required (guilt is not a proper response, by the way):

1. We must be thankful. What we have been given is not just adequate; it is beyond what we need.

2. We must be mindful of those without water or with limited access to water. For some of us, this may mean remembering to pray for those whose access to water is not as easy as ours. For others, it may mean pursuing ways to give to those who are directly involved in the work of providing water to those without access.

While REI is not currently involved in any projects that would provide clean water to those without it, we have been in the past.

In 1997, REI’s program in Uzbekistan (which is no longer active) began teaching seminars to local professionals on water quality and ways to improve irrigation in the area. Then in 1999, REI’s Uzbekistan program arranged a study program through the U.S.A for four Uzbek agricultural water engineers, so that they could continue to learn how to improve the quality and access to clean water in Uzbekistan.

In 2003, REI’s workers in Kazakhstan expand their micro-enterprise development program, which allows communities to use the interest for community projects. Some of the funds raised go to build a well and an improved irrigation system in one of the villages.

In 2005, REI’s workers in the United Arab Emirates introduced fresh drinking water technology to local homes and offices that had not had access before.

3. We must place a higher value on water. Perhaps it would be helpful for us to take notice of when we use water throughout the day and to be more aware of using less water. Clean water is a scarce natural resource in some parts of the world; we must place a high value on the water we have. And, according to Water.org, “Conserving water helps not only to preserve irreplaceable natural resources, but also to reduce the strain on urban wastewater management systems. Wastewater is costly to treat, and requires continuous investment to ensure that the water we return to our waterways is as clean as possible.”

Take a Gulp

Now, having reviewed all the facts, go to the nearest sink in your home or office, take a glass off the shelf, and turn on the faucet. Fill your cup to the brim with clean water. Take a long, slow drink. Think of those who do not have the opportunity to do what you just did, and be thankful for this gift of water.

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Photo from http://www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk/page72g.html.