Sweet Sweet Water

Again, all our faucets are dripping.  In the other room, Misty is napping, and her nose too is dripping.  She set the sound machine to "raining" to drown own the noise of dripping faucets in our bathroom.  I worry that the constant dripping that we hear everywhere in our house is slowly making us crazy.  Like a mother that wakes up several times a night to check to see if her baby is breathing, I too wake up several time to see if my pipes are dripping.  The water runs and runs, we are wasting it by the gallons, just to save our pipes, and prospects of a costly plumbing bill.

I think it is funny.  When our pipes are nearly frozen, everyone that comes within five feet of me hears about it.  They will hear me say "Whoa is me, I could not take a hot shower today... why has God turned his face from me."  One would get the impression that I subsist in the most wretched environment.  But the truth is, I have access to clean water every day of my life.  Sure, our pipes might freeze and I might have to forgo a hot shower now and then.  But for me to even have that problem, what a expletive luxury. 

Did you know
*  Less than half of the people living in Africa have access to safe drinking water.
*  Half of the world's hospitalizations are due to water related illnesses.
*  The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. 
*  Diarrhea remains in the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. 

*  Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
*  Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time.
*  Every year 1.4 million children die from water born diseases.

And to bring it back home, in Ethiopia (taken from water.org)

In rural Ethiopia, women and children walk up to six hours to collect water. Most people collect water from shallow, unprotected ponds which they share with animals. Other people collect water from shallow wells. Both of these sources are subject to contamination as rain water washes waste from surrounding areas into the source. The jugs women use to carry water back to the village weigh up to 40 pounds! Often, young children are left at home while their mother and older siblings collect water and their fathers work.

In the last 20 years, Ethiopia has experienced recurring droughts followed by food shortages and famines. During times of drought, water-related diseases are rampant. Surface water sources such as springs and ponds dry up. Remaining water sources are heavily contaminated by environmental waste, such as human and animal excreta, which is washed in when it does rain. The stagnant water serves as a breeding place for mosquitoes.

In times of drought, there is often not enough water available for people to bathe regularly. As a result, community members, especially children, suffer from scabies and eye infections. During these times, in an effort to conserve water, hand-washing after defecation or before eating is rarely practiced. Diarrheal and water-related diseases are among the principle causes of death in young children.

I hate to preach, but being that water has preoccupied me so much in the last week, writing this has given me some fresh perspective.

I hope you enjoy the slide show.  And if I may recommend listening to it with Glen Hansard Pandora station in the background.