Earth Day 2024: How Much is Water Worth?
How much water do you use in a day? Research shows that the average person in Canada uses more than 300 litres a day for drinking, cooking, and bathing. On Earth Day, we’ll often see people becoming aware of how much water they consume daily, making efforts to conserve water by taking shorter showers or turning off the faucet when brushing their teeth. But it’s not often that we ask ourselves: what if saving every drop of water wasn’t an option?
Those of us lucky enough to live somewhere with reliable running water often take that safety for granted. It’s all too easy to forget that safe, reliable water access is a privilege that more than 2 billion people across the world don’t have – or to forget just how fragile our planet’s water resources really are.
While nearly two-thirds of Earth’s surface is covered in water, less than one percent of that water is available for the needs of billions of people. Over the past few decades, those precious water resources have become increasingly fragile.
For many families in water-stressed areas, the problem of collecting enough water to get through the day is already a constant burden for women and girls. Research shows that the average woman in Africa walks six kilometres a day to collect water for her family.
On our first-ever Water Walk Talk episode in March 2024, Susannah Kelly explained how water stress robs women of opportunities to empower themselves: “When you are so focused on meeting your basic needs… when your every next thought is, how do I quench my thirst, how do I quench the thirst of my family, how do I cook, how will I feed myself, how will I get water… it is such an impossible thought, and yet is this the ever-present thought of so many of these women. Providing water access allows so many other doors to open.”
How can a person thrive without knowing where their family will get water for the day? When clean drinking water is only a walk to the sink or the fridge, the idea of not knowing where you’ll find water for the day may be difficult to grasp – but this is a reality for nearly two billion people.
For the past fifteen years, H2O4ALL has made it our goal to end that insecurity for as many people as possible. We know that a simple water system at a community’s school or church can lift a huge burden off the community. When people no longer need to worry about fulfilling their basic need for water, they can focus on creating a better future for themselves and their children.
This Earth Day, take a moment to appreciate the presence of safe water in your life. Water access is necessary for every human being to survive and thrive – and for the billions of people across the world who struggle to find water every day, receiving safe water access can be the first step towards creating a life for their family and community. By giving the gift of safe water this Earth Day, you can save a life.
