Blog Action Day 2010 - Water

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Here in the UK, we take fresh, clean, drinkable water for granted.

We turn on a tap and there it is.  Bottled water is a luxury rather than an every day necessity.

• Only 0.3% of the Earth's water is available as surface water - most of this in freshwater lakes.
• 1 in 8 people worldwide don't have access to clean, safe drinking water.
• Dirty water causes more deaths every day than all forms of violence including war.
• 38,000 deaths occur each week in children under 5 from unhygienic living conditions and unsafe drinking water.
• Global disease could be reduced by 10% just by improving the global water supply and sanitation. 

We already know that supply is exceeding demand and there is a delicate balance, even here in the relatively wet northern hemisphere.

Last Winter heavy downpours and floods caused devastation and disruption in the North, yet a few months later we had the driest summer and hosepipe bans were in force in the same areas hit by floods.

Co-incidentally, I attended the Brighton Chamber breakfast networking meeting this morning and met Neil Tomlinson from AquaPax - recyclable and sustainable packaged drinking water.

We shouldn't take this natural resource for granted.  The crops we grow, the food we eat, the clothes we buy and the technology we use - all require water.

Don't waste it and don't take it for granted.

Today is Blog Action Day - another day in the year when bloggers focus on one particular topic.  This year it's about a precious and limited resource - water.


Related links:

• Blog Action Day 2010 for more blogs and info.
• Check your own Water Footprint and find out more about reducing your own water consumption.
• Charity: water - bringing clean safe water to developing nations.