It’s crazy to think that something that takes up 71% of this planet could be unavailable. Yes, I’m talking about water. Not having the most important piece to survival seems foreign to any of us who have grown up in America and nearly all other developed countries. This, however, is not the case for the millions of people who struggle to find enough water to stay alive. I’m not talking about getting water poured down your back for ten minutes, or using gallons of boiling hot water to get the dishes ready for dinner. I’m talking about getting enough fluid into the body to survive. To avoid death. 

I’m no science nerd, but I understand the Law of Conservation. There is no way to destroy matter, so if this is true, where is this water going? I’ll go ahead and let someone smarter than I am figure that out while I explain where it should be going, which is into the bodies of people that need it, people that are dying without it, people that are dying because of it. This is not okay, not when we (I apologize in advance to all of you reading this in 1st World countries) are literally pouring it down the drain. For most of us, it doesn’t cross our minds what a luxury it is to have water that doesn’t make us sick. We cannot comprehend the importance of such a simple thing. Take it to the extremes, though, and it couldn’t be more clear how heavily we rely on water, and what not having it can do to us. I saw this first hand in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where having clean water is about as rare as owning a private jet. The heartfelt grins that took over the men and women’s faces with the mention of water proved immense value that they see in water. This sounds crazy, but after observing the way of life without it, I agreed. In addition to having the surplus of water to drink that they do not, we have enough to water our plants, something we used to rely on the rain for, enough to swim 25 meters in, and enough to fill a 60-gallon hot tub with, sit in, then get rid of.

Not only do we have this water at the click of a button, it’s clean. That’s how it is. We are lucky enough to flip the handle on the sink, turn the knob in our showers, and flush the toilet with a promise that the water that comes out is safe to drink.  How crazy lucky is that? Now imagine the opposite. Imagine having your children walk a mile across a mountain to get water that is less than a few feet from the home of some local livestock, water than that has been bathed in, clothes have been washed in, dishes have been scrubbed in, and then asking them to carry this on their heads one five-gallon bucket at a time back home. Don’t stop there; is that enough water for the family? Absolutely not. We’re talking multiple trips like this per day. And at the end of it all, they’re losing community members left and right because they’re drinking water, but what choice do they have?  There’s no way around hydration. There is no alternative. If there was, they would already be living by it. The point being, they don’t have a choice. But we do. We have the choice to put an end to this. These people were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. We were fortunate enough to be born into a life where we are entitled to clean water. Good for us, but what about everyone else? There is nothing that makes them any less deserving. Undeniably, there is no one that can justify using water that causes infections, viruses, and death. There is nothing a person could say to make sense of why anyone would be worthy of this.

That being said, I think often times we take for granted what we are able to do with clean water and, therefore, are unable to see the value in making a change. But picture your life without it. I know it’s unlikely that many of us would be able to throw ourselves out of bed every morning in order to attend school or find a job with constant feelings of nausea, headaches, and infections. Forget wanting to get out of bed, there aren’t many employers who would jump at the chance for a new hire with cholera. Yet, this is not something we are worrying about here. It’s not something we’ve been taught to worry about. We can afford to be bothered by the difference between Coke and Pepsi because we’ve been handed the amenity of pure water.  We are not everyone; however, and those of us who have never thought of water as more than something that comes out of the faucet, it is our time to do something. It’s our time to share this soundness to each and every person on this planet.

At this point you may be wondering if I’m advising you to start sending gallons of water overseas. The answer is no. There is a simpler solution. There is a way for these suffering countries to provide themselves with safe water, but they need our help. They need us to supply them with a way to clean their water. Luckily for us, this has already been created. That’s where Pure Water for the World comes in. Pure Water is a nonprofit organization that has the technology to create basic filters, but they need our funds to get it done. A $25.00 donation will supply a child with clean water. It will save a life. I’m not asking that you give your entire savings to a kid you’ve never met, but before blowing that next $20.00 bill, consider how else it can be used. Consider the kid sitting in class in Haiti too sick to be able to join in with his classmates dancing because this kid is real. I saw him, and he needs our help.