The Global Water Crisis

Dear Future President,

Water scarcity is a major problem for many people who live in dry areas of the world. The daily struggle to get water places a burden on many women and young girls who go to extremes trying to help their families survive. Water from ponds, streams, or muddy creeks are not suitable for drinking. Dirty water can contain water borne diseases that are extremely deadly. There are people that might say that the water crisis is not America's problem. Well, we really need to open our eyes and realize that in the near future we could have a major problem. We have the California drought, global warming, the Flint water crisis, and water pollution. Although it doesn’t seem as severe as other places, it’s not only a problem, it's a growing one.

I think that people are not being treated right if they don’t have water, no person should have to live like that. As I was researching I found that The Cambridge Dictionary defines water as “a clear, colorless liquid that falls from the sky as rain and is necessary for animal and plant life.” A common pattern in every piece of information was that water is a necessity. The United Nations says that access to clean water is a natural human right. People drink polluted water every day because they don’t have fresh water or drinking wells. We are talking about real people here. Real people who drink water that has been bathed in, used as a toilet, and trashed. Poor drinking water leads to diseases like cholera. A statistic from the Water Project Organization is that “worldwide, 1 out of every 5 deaths of children under 5 is caused by a waterborne disease” and that about 1.8 million people die every year from cholera. Also, every human needs about 20 to 50 liters of clean water everyday for sanitation, cooking, and drinking. It is unfair that people are not getting what they need.

Creating access to water is a hard task, but there are many options to give water. Many organizations are already raising money to help these people by building wells. Wells supply clean water for a large area of people, but we still need to put money towards building more wells and researching ways to make better water filters. Another area of research is distilling salt water. I have found that it is a hard task, but if we can find a better way to clean it, people will have millions of gallons of clean water. According to the United States Geological Survey t “About 71% of the earth is covered in water, about 96.5 is in the ocean.”

Having a dirty water supply leads to a series of problems. Drinking polluted water or using it for sanitation leads to sickness. When children are sick they miss out on their education. Adults with sickness are not offered jobs. No water means that it is hard to cook, leading to hunger. Having bad health means that families can’t go out and make money, which leaves many in the drastic cycle of poverty. Access to clean water will improve health, education, hunger, and the economy for these dehydrated countries.

Around the globe, at least one billion people are facing water scarcity. If there are 7.4 billion people on earth, then that means that about 1/7 or 13.51% of the world is lacking in one of life's necessities. I am writing to you, the future president, because I think that if you don’t care about the real fact that 1/7 of the planet is suffering, then how could we know that you would take care of one country. Please help these people in need.

Sincerely,

Kylie 

Works Cited

“Why Is Safe Water Essential?” Overview, Safe Drinking Water is Essential, 2007, https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/water/html/en/overview/why-is-safe-water-essential.html.

“WATER SCARCITY &Amp; THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER.” Learn, The Water Project, 2016, https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/.

"U.S. Geological Survey." USGS.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

"Water Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary." Water Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.