Blog Action Day 2010: Clean Water Green

Our Daily Green is honored to participate with bloggers around the world today to highlight work of Water.org and charity: water to ensure safe and clean drinking water.

Five facts that illustrate the severity of the global water issue and why Blog Action Day 2010 is an opportunity to educate and raise awareness about the problem:

Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A.

Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.

Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.

It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.

The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

Earlier this year, the UN declared access to clean water a human right. These facts are a wake up call for those of us with regular access to clean, safe water.  Just $20 will give a person 20 years of clean water. charity : water donates 100% of the money raised to those in need.

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