Water

It was announced that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $750 million to fight AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  I thought I would talk about something perhaps a little lesser know and that is the need for clean water.   

Water is essential to the survival of all organisms. Simply put without it life would not exist.  The majority of us living in developed nations take safe water for granted.  We don’t even think about it when we make our tea in the morning, wash our dishes, brush our teeth or take a shower.  However, worldwide nearly one billion people lack access to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.  It's estimated that 884 million people worldwide do not have access to an improved drinking water source, such as house pipes, public standpipe, protected well, protected spring, or rainwater collection.  According to the World Health Organization 3.5 million people die each year from water related diseases and the majority are children.  In fact every 20 seconds a child dies from a water related disease.  The good news is there are known solutions and treatment options.  We just need to make it happen.