<Author>Michael</Author>
<Topic>Water Problem</Topic>
<Source></Source>
<Nationality>USA</Nationality>
"Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink." This is a familiar saying in the US, but I see the problem more strongly here in China where we can't drink the tap water. When my students or I forget to fill our thermoses, then we have no water to drink. In America, we waste lots of water. We let the water from the tap keep running even when we don't need to do so. We take long showers or tub baths that use up too much water. We water our lawns or wash our cars with much more water than is needed.
I first saw the importance of the water crisis several years ago when I spent 10 days in Haiti.
One of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti is surrounded by water all along its coasts. Since that water is salty, it cannot be used for drinking. In the small village near the Dominican Republic border where I stayed for three days, I used too much water for a shower and their water barrels on the roof became empty. We had to go in a truck with empty barrels to fill them at the river. I saw that it was a very hard task for my hosts because I had been selfish with the water.
I lived and taught in Swaziland in southeast Africa for about a year. We had to boil our water for drinking and some families who didn't boil their water before drinking it got parasites. They had to carry the water up from the river a long distance to their homes in buckets. About once a week on the university campus, there would be no water for about a full day. So, we had to keep available two liter bottles filled with water for drinking, cooking, washing, and flushing the toilet.
These two situations taught me the value of water. For a long time after each experience, I would be very careful about using the water. I still try to be thrifty with the water, but over time, I forgot the lessons that I have learned about water being our most precious natural commodity. Without water, there is no life for animals, humans, or vegetation. Without pure water, we can get very ill. Today, in the world, there are 35, 000 children under five who die every day because of malnutrition and diseases caused by water parasites. This is shameful in the early twenty-first century.
What can we do to solve these water problems? The international community continues to make some progress in its efforts, but still not enough is done internationally, nationally, or locally to preserve enough water for humans, animals, and vegetation to survive in all parts of the world. Sometimes water has to be diverted from one area, such as is happening in the Three Gorges Project in China. Sometimes people have to pay for water, and the more water that we use, the more we must pay. This is common in the US, but as an American, I don't really appreciate the problem unless I am paying a very high price for the water that I use. Others and I must remind ourselves every day to be careful with our water usage, so that there will be enough for life which needs it to survive and thrive.