Blog Action Day 2010: Water Is Life

This year I’m participating in Blog Action Day 2010. I have a couple reasons for taking part, mostly because I thought it would be fun to be included in an important cause. Also because I need something to take my mind off of my current How Can I Get an iPhone4 plot. The Blog Action Day 2010 theme has to do with me, has to do with my family, my daughter, our lives, and the lives of other children and families. So it has to do with Solitary Mama.

Blog Action Day 2010 is an event where bloggers from everywhere all write a post on their own blogs on the same day, on the same topic, with the idea of starting a global discussion on that topic. This year’s topic is water.

If I were asked what I can’t live without, I’d tell you my daughter, my family, my friends, my computer, my iPhone (even though it’s the really old one and doesn’t have video) and maybe salad. What can I say, I like salad. But I seldom consider those things that I literally cannot live without.

Things like water.

I’m a single mother. I’m a fulltime legal assistant and freelance writer. I occasionally wallow a bit and complain of not having enough money or not having enough of this or that. I have never complained though, of not having water. In the United States at least, you will rarely (if ever) hear anyone complaining that they don’t have water. Okay. Maybe in the desert. But I don’t think anyone in any desert around here, is really walking around complaining about a shortage of water.

You have to have drinking water to live. Water is life.

There is no alternative to water. 80% of diseases are caused by unsafe water and kill more people per year than all forms of violence including war. Furthermore, 38,000 children under the age of 5 die every week from unsafe drinking water and unsanitary water conditions. For those of us who can stand in a shower of perfectly good drinking water for hours, or complain that we don’t like our drinking water and actually buy other water in fancy bottles, it is shameful to say the least.

You Never Miss the Water

An ex-boyfriend told me once that “you never miss the water until the well runs dry”. Couldn’t tell you what he meant by that but I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with water. But, speaking of wells, there are organizations like water.org and charitywater.org that work to build wells and assist in getting clean water to communities that don’t have access.

And before you start to think that our well will never run dry, consider this: 40% of OUR rivers and 46% of OUR lakes are currently too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. (And I know you know someone’s uncle that pees in that water, but I’m talking about too polluted for LIFE.) That’s almost half of our rivers and lakes. Not to be Chicken Little-ish, but maybe…

I Can’t Make Water

“I know you, you were probably trying to make water cold…” says my friend who is making fun of my cooking. I can’t make much and I definitely can’t make water. There are ways though, that we can help those that don’t have water and there are ways that we can protect our own water.

• Eliminate waste by giving up bottled water.
• Keep our rivers and streams clean.
• Practice conservation at home.

Organizations that are available to assist communities that don’t have clean drinking water can be found at Blog Action 2010 website if you’re interested in helping. There are also a ton of great blogs to peruse over there as well. Take a look and consider what life would be like without clean water. If it were our children. Your family. Really. What would you do?

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

“Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”-Albert Szent-Gyorgyi