Getting Thirsty [Blog Action Day]

Recently I had a unique experience. I woke up, used restroom, turned on the water to wash my hands the only problem, no water. It turned out they were just doing some work in my building and the water was only out for about 30 min. I will say trying to get ready for work in the morning without water is not an easy task and really got me thinking about those less fortunate than me.

Today marks the 4^th Annual Blog Action Day (and my third participating in.) Blog Action Day is a day where a theme is chosen and the blogosphere is encouraged to reflect, write, and educate others about what we can do to change the world. This year that theme is water.

So what can we do as a community to help the almost 1 billion people without clean water?

The simplest thing we can do is give. After my experience without water I donated $20 to Charity: Water. According to the organization $20 is enough money to provide one person clean water for 20 years. A small donation can make a huge difference. If you’re low on dough you could fundraise or get friends/family together to each pitch in a few dollars to make a difference. Perhaps give up drinking bottled water and use the money to provide others with water.

Don’t want to give, then conserve. A recent TriplePundit report states Americans drink on average of 200 bottles of water each, per year. That’s a lot of water! It takes over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 80 percent of which will never be recycled. By giving up bottled for the tap water you’d be doing something good for the environment as well as saving money.

I encourage you to think about water today. What would you do if you didn’t have clean water? What other things can you do to help those without it? Leave your ideas and suggestions in the comments.