Most of the people like us - the ones able to read and write blogs on computers - do not really have to think about water. We turn on the tab and there it is. Want to wash your hair 4 times a day? You can. Want to do the dishes ? No problem. Want to play some water games during a hot summer afternoon? Go for it. Want to drink straight from the tab? You wont get sick.
Because we are in this position of comfort, we should not use our position to delve in self-intrest and for example; blog because we are bored or because of our ego. We should speak up about what is really going on in this world, and what we allow by accepting the system that gives us access to all the water we want - but deprives many of it.
In a world where people care about each other, the money would not be spend on more commercials to brainwash and make people desire to consume. The money would not be spend on more junk food for the elite, more make up, more gadgets that break down before you can say "look what I got". The priority should be to create facilities for the population of this world that have no access to any safe drinking water. That even die because of it. They are people just like you and me , part of this world, with the same internal mechanisms. Yet we act like we are all seperate from each other, and that "our" business is our business, and that their own leaders should take care of them.
We should all take care of each other! Beginning to learn to take care of ourselves and not blindly accept ourselves as how we are programmed. Because we are raised in comfort, and many develop a certain "I only care about myself and those I have feelings for " attitude. Comfort becomes the chair of the devil, which makes people blind and not give a shit. Unless it would be themselves or their "loved ones". But that is still selfish, because then you care because YOU feel something. And when you dont, then suddenly it is not important enough. Suddenly shopping is so much more important then people who die from water contamination or water shortage.
I am not saying that we individually should go donate - that has never worked well because the core of this system was not changed - thus the same problems kept popping up. Look around you in this world, thousands of charities, and problems keep rising. If we want change, we need to work on fundamental change! Changing this entire system that creates seperation and abuse.
The lack of access to safe drinking water is the primary cause of hunger, disease and poverty throughout the developing world.
The water shortage problem in Kenya is increasing - and as weather conditions worsen around the globe - the future is not so bright in some areas of Kenya that are already facing terrible conditions.
Residents in Turkana district in the Northwestern part of Kenya, have to resort to drinking water meant for their livestock. In normal conditions residents trek for miles to get clean drinking water from boreholes and wells but due to lack of rainfall this supply of clean water has dried up. The alternative is to drink water from pans meant for livestock and as this water is stagnant and contaminated it exposes residents to the risk of water borne diseases.
The situation is worse in other rivers especially the Mara according to a report in the Guardian newspaper by George Roumeguere, the founder of Dawntodusk Foundation. Due to deforestation and pesticide poisoning caused by agricultural policies the Mara River and other rivers around it have been badly affected. As he puts it, "we have witnessed cases of animals refusing to drink from the river and also animals dying from pesticide poisoning". Residents who drink from rivers like the Nyangores, Amalo and Chepchirik have been advised to take chlorine tablets or boil their drinking water because the water has been "highly contaminated". This was proved when four people died of typhoid and others were hospitalised due to water borne infections.
Lake Nakuru in Kenya, famous for its flamingo population is also worrying conservationists who have noticed a fall in the number of flamingos migrating to its shores. The reason according to Joseph Edebe, a Senior Scientist working for Kenya Wildlife Service is drought conditions that have resulted in low water levels in the lake and the increased concentration of salt in the water. Conditions for the growth of algae, which is food for the flamingos, have to be right or the birds will find alternative lakes to migrate for their food. The pollution levels of the lake increase in the rainy seasons when storm drains get blocked thus allowing all kinds of waste materials and agricultural toxic wastes to accumulate in the waters. All these factors have contributed to a decrease in the population of the flamingos that visit the shores of the lake every year.
Another problem Nairobi faces is the burst water pipes and sewers in some estates of Nairobi, which leaves residents exposed to raw sewage. This
is an especially dangerous situation for the young children who play around the areas. The Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company is slow to offer solutions and any repairs to burst pipes is charged to local residents who cannot afford these high costs. (http://www.helium.com/items/1456616-kenya---water-shortages)
There is even a link being made about the wealthy getting sick because of poverty. Which would literally mean we reap what we sow.
Despite clean water and improved public services, water-related diseases continues to spread in cities around the world.
Mulligan is a PhD student at the McMaster University campus of the United Nations University's Institute on Water, Environment and Health and a recipient. Her research examines why dengue fever, a severe flu-like illness spread through the bite of mosquitoes, continues to threaten urban populations in many developing countries. Mulligan's research uses Malaysia's carefully planned city of Putrajaya as her example. Designed to be a showcase of Malaysian innovation, the city has excellent public services and one of the highest standards for water quality in the world. It also has very high rates of dengue fever.
So far, she's discovered that the traditional link made between poverty and water-related diseases like dengue fever may be at the root of the problem.
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news-is-the-link-between-poverty-and-water-related-dise-022011.aspx
If this is true, then it would be also in the best intrest of the rich to work on a system that does not allow poverty. Right now in this capitalist system where money is placed above life - the poor are misused for the rich to exploit. That I have written about earlier in some of my blogs, which you can read if your intrested.
So the general message is: do not just accept what your culture or parents have thaught you to do. Think for yourself, look at who you are and why, and what kind of system you live in. Look at the outflows, where it puts the emphasis on, what it allows within its structures and what it endorces. You will soon find out the inequality of it. Would you want to be in the shoes of people around this globe? The sweatshop worker? The abused animal? The child starving to death? The woman having to prostitute for money?
I think not. So let's work on a new world together, and create a fundamental change that lasts!
Next time you hear the tab running, it may have a whole different meaning.
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