The majority of Americans take access to healthy water for granted. When taking a shower or brushing teeth, it is expected that clean water will come out of the faucet when turning it on. I think that we would all agree that access to clean water is important for more than one reason. Access to clean water is key to human development
In 1993 an organization called World Water Day celebrated yearly on March 22nd was started, even until this day it reminds us of how the availability clean water affects the lives of people in many ways. As recently 2010 globally 2.6 billion people are still without access to clean water and unless the pace of progress rapidly increases, people without clean water will increase to 2.7 billion (2010 Water World Day). That is almost unbelievable to think that so many people are still with access to clean water.
In 2004 UNICEF reported that four thousand children die every day from bad water. 1.8 million People mostly children are killed from diarrhea. Thank goodness from groups such as Millennium Development Goals are the world’s time-bound quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty (2006 Millennium Project).
A report suggests that school retention has been low because of water supply and sanitation. Another report estimates that in Sub-Saharan Africa half of all the girls who drop out of school say that lack of clean water is a contributing factor. In Tanzania they started a program called School Wash making a commitment to providing places for children to wash their hands and places to use the bathroom. The findings about the reality of lack of clean water are unbelievable sad.
Only 11% of schools surveyed meet the MOEVT
“minimum” standards of 20 girls and 25 boys per
drop hole.
• 20% of schools have more than 100 pupils per drop
hole and 6% of schools have no latrines at all.
• The facilities that exist are frequently a barrier to
those children most in need of an education. 96% of
schools do not have facilities that are suitable or
accessible to children with disabilities.
• 52% of girls latrines did not have doors providing
dignity and privacy(School Wash in Tanzania.)
There is so much information about this topic that has been very eye opening. As I continue in my journey in early childhood, I will seek out opportunities that I can positively affect public health measures that are plaguing the community in which I live.
School Wash in Tanzania Retrieved by http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/swash_brochure.pdf
Unite For Children (October 2004) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Retrieved by http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_23606.html
Water World Day Retrieved by http://www.worldwaterday.org/page/2536
You are right to point out that Americans take water for granted - I don't think much about what affects lack of water would have on my children and me. We have a problem with frozen pipes in the winter - but when this does happen, we can easily access water at someone else's house or at the pool we go to in the winter (imagine, there are children who do no have access to water for washing their hands, and my children have access to an entire swimming pool). Anyway, people share their water freely because it is not a major concern. Clean water should be as easily accessible to all people as clean air to breathe. This is a very thought provoking subject.
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