World H2O Day

Even through this event has passed already, but I would like shared about it. World Water Day 2009 take place on March 22. On that day, "UNICEF-supported water, sanitation and hygiene projects are working to improve child health and survival in more than 90 developing countries."

Facts: "Globally, an estimated 125 million children under the age of five live in households without access to a safe drinking-water source. Even more people – a total of more than 2.5 billion around the world – are living without proper sanitation."

"In the Central African Republic, fully three quarters of the population has no access to adequate sanitation."

UNICEF USA Ambassador Joel Madden, who visited the Sam Ouandja camp "where nearly half of the children who die before the age of five are killed by diarrhoeal disease." He said, "I'm no better than they are...I was just born in a country where I can have clean water, and that's just the standard. We have [safe water] right in our house. They have to walk 15 minutes with a wheelbarrow to get water."

I do agree with Mr. Madden. Somehow, I always think that many people in the US are wasteful because they are lucky enough to be born in a country that have clean water and from there on takes things for granted that resource are unlimited. This is not the case for those in 3rd world countries.

How to make a difference?
The Tap Project is one of them. "Working from the knowledge that just $1 can provide safe drinking water for a child for 40 days, the project asks diners in restaurants across the United States to donate $1 for the tap water that is generally provided for free...All the funds are used to support UNICEF's efforts to halve the number of people without safe water and sanitation worldwide by 2015."

I recommend to actually visit the web site, which is listed below. It contains a video clip regarding this topic.

Works Cited: World Water Day and the need for global action on safe water and sanitation. UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index_48818.html.