Dear Future President,

Currently in the United States and the world people are dying because of bad water systems in our schools and world. Most schools have a water system, but some are linked to bad sources or, water pipes need cleaning. Many incidents have happened where kids at school want to take a harmless drink of water and accidentally start drinking water infused with lead. This quote reads “The more you look into health and health inequalities, you realize that a lot of it is not due to a particular disease - it's really linked to underlying societal issues such as poverty, inequity, lack of access to safe drinking water and housing.”-Helene D. Gayle. People in Kenya are heavily  affected by this water crisis. Kenya's natural water resources do not provide an equal delivery of water to the various regions of the country and the country's water basins do not reach an equitable area of the country. This leaves most of the population without any fresh water. Also having most schools not have any fresh water sources or water at all. I believe that better water systems in our schools and world should be the priority of our future President because the water systems everywhere are terrible. They are in Kenya, Asia and even the United States. They are not getting better, not to mention the fact that thousands of kids and adults die from accidentally drinking lead-infused water and non-clean water. Lead poisoning mainly happens in schools when water systems are either hooked up poorly or are hooked up to unclean water sources.

I personally think that the water systems and water fountains at school are disgusting and that we need newer, cleaner systems. I think they are disgusting because usually they are a chalky white color or really warm, which is caused by bad water systems. Also the water fountains by our PLTW classroom could have lead poisoning in the water fountains or in the future could get lead poisoning. This matters because kids could get lead poisoning or drink water that is not good for their health. it's not just our schools with bad water systems.Kenya is one of the counties with the worst water systems and water supply. People in Kenya have to drink,bathe and do laundry in the local river or stream. So imagine drinking out of the same river that hundreds of people bathed and did their laundry in. Their water there is also not that clean, with rivers and streams pulled over with trash, sometimes even blocked off because of how much trash there is. ”Due to lack of access to water and sanitation” (water.org). This matters because we need to be more cautious with our water and not take it for granted because some people would kill to have a different place to get water and a different place to bathe. Not to mention, Some people think that the US and other countries aren't taking much action in Kenya because in some parts it's a poor country. In this quote “The main thing people can do to help provide water around the world is do the little stuff, don’t shower long, turn the faucet off while brushing your teeth.”(the water project). This matter because we take our water for granted and just use it up but there are people out there that need it a little more than we do. Therefore we need to pay more attention to countries with bad water systems like Kenya to help prevent deaths from water poisoning.

Most people don’t believe this is a problem due to money costs and that it takes to long to change water filters or clean the water pipes. Money is the main reasons schools don't want to replace their water systems. House owners would need to pay between $674-$2,309 to entirely replace a water system. But we are talking about schools, so schools would need to pay around $3,998 to replace a water system.The article Water In Schools reads “While installing many new water fountains could be prohibitively expensive.” This matters because no matter the cost the school should be able to provide water for students, but most schools won’t replace or clean water systems due mainly to the cost of replacing.

So what should the future president do? Pass a law that schools have to yearly check ups on water systems around the school. If bad, then somehow fix what the problem is: whether that is cleaning the pipes, getting new, updated technology, or even replacing the water system. He/she should also check for lead poisoning in the water systems. The Global Goals it would go with are Global Goal Number six and three because my topic talks about how water pollution is not safe for anyone and how it affects our health. It also talks about how bad the water and water systems are across the world. This would help our people's health and give us clean water and sanitation. Why? Well we can't live without water so it’s a big part of our lives. It’s bad enough that the earth's water is only 2.5% drinkable. This is a priority because, thousands of people die every year because of lead poisoning, water pollution and drinking unclean water. Connecting with Global Goal number 3 and 14, Drinking bad water is not good for our health and having bad polluted oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds can kill our marine animals. Making food like fish and crabs die from polluted waters.

This illustrates my topic because it shows that the water is extremely polluted.

The water in Kenya is filled with garbage and diseases. We need the President to make clean water sources so people in Kenya don’t have to drink water from this river anymore

Sincerely,

Abby Gronholz

Chaska Middle School East 8th grader

This illustrates my topic because it shows that the water is extremely polluted.

This illustrates my topic because it shows that the water is extremely polluted and dangerous to drink from.