Water - A personal Crisis?

So, I awoke this morning ready to get up and face the day, just need to shower and do all the other tasks before making a cup of coffee and greeting the day. Guess what? No water.

We who live in settled suburbs with a good infrastructure, are use to having water. We open a tap and water “magically” comes out, as easy as boiling the kettle. Our idea of not having water is going on a camping trip where water is 5 steps away from our stand and then we proclaim we have been “roughing it”.

In Africa and even South Africa there are millions of people (the waterproject.org) who do not have access to clean drinking water, let alone water itself. We all have seen media images of poor and less fortunate not having access to running water in their communities let alone in their homes.

A lucky few at least have access to a central water source by way of a tap in the informal settlement or village. However they still need to queue with a wheelbarrow loaded with empty containers to get water for the smallest tasks, such as washing, making food and hygiene related tasks. This can of course lead to a whole new discussion in respect of sanitation and illnesses.

We forget so easily. All of us can recall last year with the drought stricken areas where all of us were so “hyped” about contributing to the areas. Bottled water was donated and personally delivered to these area. Holiday goers travelled with extra water and if they went through the areas they would be delivered to a central drop off point in the areas. We were all willing to help.

There are international organizations opening offices in South Africa to help us and Africa in setting up an infrastructure to combat this growing problem. (http://www.wateraid.org/international/about_us/newsroom/10599.asp) They have made a business of this, showing that there is a need for this and it is a real problem requiring a solution.

What contribution can you make?

What can you as an individual do to help?

The point that I am trying to make is that we need to remember each time we open a tap how priviledged we are and how thankful we should be for having something as simple as clean running tap water.

Have at least one thing to be Positive about!

#PositivelySocial 14 August 2012