Blog Action Day 2010: Water - Fuel of the future

FOR THE FOURTH TIME, I AM joining again the Blog Action Day. For this year, the theme is water which is very influential in my professional life. Briefly, because of this element, water paved the way to be successful in my career in environment specifically in water/wastewater treatment and waste management. Aside from my work in environmental consulting, I also do a teaching job which handles courses/modules related to water (i.e. collection, supply, distribution, treatment, etc.).

No need to emphasize the significance and importance of water but I just want to share some important facts and figures about the role being played by water in our society today. Gathered by the organizer of Blog Action Day, there are alarming situations and statistics that need to be addressed and require immediate solution towards a sustainable supply of water.

In terms of scarcity of clean water, almost 1 billion people have lack access to clean water, consequently causes a litany of struggles, diseases and death. For African women, it requires them to walk over 40 billion hours each year to carry cisterns weighing up to 18 kg to collect water. Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die resulted from unclean, unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living environment.

In terms of water consumption in industrialized and developed countries, it takes 24 liters of water to make one hamburger, thus it means that over 19.9 billion liters of water will be consumed to make one hamburger for every person in Europe. It requires half a liter of water to charge iPhones and this means that 40 millions of liters of water to charge over 80 million active iPhones in the world. In terms of fashion, it requires 1,514 liters of water to produce a cotton t-shirt and another 6,813 liters for jeans.

For bottled water consumption, the US, Mexico and China consumed the highest number of bottled water - drinking an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. To produce these water bottles, it requires over 17 million barrels of oil and 86 percent of these bottles can not be recycled.

In relation to water and the environment, the statistics are quite alarming! It is estimated that 2 million tons of human waste are disposed or dumped in water sources every day which caused negative impacts to the environment, the surrounding communities in particular. It costs $12.8 billion per year caused from death and disease from polluted coastal waters. It is also estimated that 40% of US rivers and 46% of US lakes are not suitable for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.

DESPITE OF THESE CURRENT PROBLEMS, THERE ARE existing organizations and agencies that are working together to provide solutions and immediate remedies in combating water shortage and water pollution. These organizations' initiatives also provide tools and strategies to empower affected people to contribute to solve the water crisis. For example, there are organizations that build wells to bring fresh water to the communities in the developing countries. Even at home, we can do our share by saving water in terms of washing our clothes, dishes, watering our plants or cleaning our cars. We can also maintain the cleanliness of our water bodies (beaches, rivers, streams, creeks) by proper disposal of our household wastes. Finally, through our blogging activities we can even increase the awareness of our readers in protecting, conserving and sustaining our water resource.

THIS YEAR, I ALSO WANT TO SHARE MY INTEREST IN PHOTOGRAPHY and emphasize the beauty of our environment, where WATER is dominant and provide the perfect landscape of our natural environment. With my traveling experience, I do appreciate the essence of water in our daily lives and to other living organisms - from plants to animals, from whales to planktons! These images posted in this journal somehow illustrate the WATER plays an important role for our Mother Earth to survive. Without water, no living organisms will survive, thus it is our responsibility to protect it from further degradation and abuse. Our generation has the power to protect, conserve and sustain WATER resource!

By the way, Im also a supporter of Social Vibe through the partnership of Wordpress.Com which I currently support a charity that promote access to clean water. To date I've earned 1643 gallons of clean water! You can try to contribute by clicking the widget of Social Vibe located at the right hand sidebar of my mother website, My world is getting smaller every day.

If you are interested to find more of my previous posts concerning Blog Action Day events, please click the following links: BLOG ACTION DAY 2009, BLOG ACTION DAY 2008, and BLOG ACTION DAY 2007.