The series on green and sustainable living continues today with a discussion about water.
The subject of water is actually an explosive issue worldwide, because there may be a day in the not-too-far future when we reach peak water, just as there’s talk of peak oil.
The subject of water is so important that in the future I will devote an entire series to it.
But for today, I want to discuss the subject of dirty water. Thanks to the folks at Good Magazine, there are a couple of videos on this page that explain the entire scenario.
In the developed world, water problems are caused by shortages or chemical contamination. But in the developing world, water problems are because of dirty water.
In a lot of the developing world, people don’t have toilets or latrines, which leads to fecal matter penetrating into the water supply.
The fecal matter contains massive amounts of viruses and bacteria, and if it contaminates the water, it will lead to various diseases.
The most common illness from contaminated water is cholera, which leads to explosive diarrhea, and is responsible for the death of 4100 children a day in developing nations.
Hundreds of millions of school days by schoolchildren are missed because of cholera, and many girls are forced to end their education to go out and help search for clean water supplies.
Now, as I said above, the U.S. and developed nations are also not immune to the problem of contaminated water. It’s just a different type of contamination – often caused by chemicals that runoff into waters.
But in the developed nations, it’s hard to conceive of people living with contaminated waters due to poor sanitation and hygiene. But that’s the problem – and it’s a big one – in developing nations.
So watch the videos above and below, courtesy of Good Magazine. The one above gives an overview, while the two below are movie parodies with a message.