Take a Minute Tomorrow When You Turn on the Tap to Consider the 1.1 Billion People in the World Without Safe Water

When you start to turn on the tap tomorrow (March 22) -- World Water Day -- take a minute to consider the more than one billion people around the world who do not have safe and clean water.

While you are standing there looking at the stream of clean water pouring from the spigot, imagine yourself leaving your home at 4 a.m. every day and walking miles to fetch the small amount of water that you can carry back to your home. And then imagine that the only water available to you is from a polluted stream or well -- water that very likely will make you or someone in your family sick.

That's the experience of one of six people on this earth.

If most of us were asked, "What is the most severe health crisis on the globe?" we most likely would think of the AIDS crisis, the malaria epidemic or even multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Indeed these are serious and deadly illnesses. But the greatest health problem of all is lack of safe water and adequate sanitation.

Eighty percent of all illness in the developing world stems from contaminated water and poor sanitation and 2.2 million people die each year from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitary conditions such as cholera and dysentery. Children under the age of five account for 90 percent of these deaths. According to the United Nations, 1.7 million of these deaths could be prevented if they had safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

Besides the health problems, there are devastating economic and social consequences. Women and girls spend their days walking miles in search of water instead of earning money for their families or going to school. For the young girl who must trudge endlessly to draw water rather than go to school, the fact that there may now be a school in the village is meaningless and, without an education, her future holds little promise.

When the burden of collecting water every day is removed, one of the immediate benefits is the number of children who regularly attend school. One village teacher said, "I've been teaching here for eight years. Before the borehole well, we had 46 students. Now we have close to 400 students."

Recognizing that water is life, our family foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, began to invest in potable water development about 20 years ago. Since then we have provided nearly one million people with access to clean water and sanitation and we have projects underway in villages with another 1.6 million people.

But that's just a drop in the ocean compared with the incredible need.

We have the technology, the talent and the money to provide clean water for everyone. What we need now is the will to take on the challenge and more funding to make it possible. I do see it happening. More foundations, corporations and NGOs are investing in water projects. Every time you buy a bottle of water at Starbucks, money flows to water projects. Churches, charities and civic organizations are also becoming involved. Churches often organize their members to go to a village for a week or so to dig a well. Lions and Rotary clubs are among those who are taking leadership in this area.

On this World Water Day, take a few minutes to be thankful for your abundant supply of water. Then commit never to take a glass of water for granted again and resolve to help others have that same security. To help, go to hiltonfoundation.org to find a list of organizations that are making clean water a priority for all people.

Steven M. Hilton is CEO and President of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Comments

[cktirumalai]

As someone who came down with a bad case of typhoid at 8, I know first-hand about the danger of contaminated water. My orthodox grandparents would drink water only from their own well, boiled, but I was in school.
Some 150 years ago, a British doctor correctly guessed that the frequency of cholera in parts of London arose from the water-pumps from which the poor got their water.
Washington D.C. has been uneasy about the possible presence of lead in its water.

[WUC]

Your point is well taken. Poverty is at the base of many public health concerns. Your work is to be commended. And I am grateful for all you are doing.

The Hilton Foundation has always understood the importance of taking care of children. Your water programs save millions of lives. You have responded to one of the world"s most critical needs.

In the work to prevent cancer causing environmental exposures scientist too are looking at the condition of water in this country. And while water is abundant in this county sound science is discovering we are exposing ourselves to series of chemical and pharmaceutical exposures in our drinking water that we are uncertain of its long-term effects.

Scientist have pointed to something called endocrine disruptors which are hormone acting exposures from pharmaceuticals to agricultural pesticides linked to changing and or altering the sex of fish.

Disruption of the endocrine system can occur in various ways. Some chemicals mimic a natural hormone, fooling the body into over-responding to the stimulus (e.g., a growth hormone that results in increased muscle mass), or responding at inappropriate times (e.g., producing insulin when it is not needed). Other endocrine disrupting chemicals block the effects of a hormone from certain receptors (e.g. growth hormones required for normal development). Still others directly stimulate or inhibit the endocrine system and cause overproduction or underproduction of hormones (e.g. an over or under active thyroid). Certain drugs are used to intentionally cause some of these effects, such as birth control pills. In many situations involving environmental chemicals, however, an endocrine effect is not desirable.

These exposures have left a permanent thumbprint in our water.

This all matters in the work to prevent cancer because scientists now tell us that 2/3rds of all cancer comes from outside of the body. Today we have steadily increasing cancers and while the cure is increasing ¦cancer should never be an expected stage of life.

We also do not know how these exposures are affecting children.

Cancer remains the leading cause of death among U.S. children ages 1 to 19 years, second only to accidents.

Children are different from adults. Pound for pound, children eat more food, drink more water, and breathe more air than adults. Thus, they are likely to be exposed to substances in their environment at higher levels than are adults. Exposure to toxicants may result in irreversible damage, even though the same exposure to a mature system may result in little or no damage.

While the cure for cancer is critical, in the larger picture we must look at the road to less cancer. We must look to our environment where there are commonplace cancer causing environmental exposures.

The environment of today is the proverbial mirror for human health. Our role is charged with reducing the unnecessary and preventable exposures that have taken on the everyday landscape in our own lives those known to have caused cancer and those we suspect to have caused cancer.

We must keep our eye on the goal this is all about prevention not panic.

The work that the Hilton Foundation is doing to save lives is commendable ¦and pressing¦they are addressing critical and urgent needs.

All foundations should be so effective.


Bill Couzens, Founder,Lesscancer.org

[maddogbitesback]

I save water. No lawn, short showers, turn off the tap when I brush my teeth, water saving washing machine, water saver toilets and taps. I have done this for thirty and more years. I gave an insulated house, don't drive and rarely eat meat. I also support the concept of a drastic reduction in births. God does not want children to be born and die shortly thereafter from malnutrition, infanticide, and water born diseases. My saving water and energy is negated by the rapid increase of people on the planet. At the turn of the century there were only about two billion people. So in order to save resources, water, food, stop global warming and so on there has to be an acknowledgment that the world must cut down on people. Me saving water is not a spit in the ocean compared to the number of people landing on the planet each and every day.

[Pandu]

"rarely eat meat".

^---That conserves much more water than this -----v

"No lawn, short showers, turn off the tap when I brush my teeth, water saving washing machine, water saver toilets and taps."

[dadw5boys]

SQUAT TOLIETS don't waste water like the flush toliets do. 5 to 9 gallons are wasted with each flush.

[SonnyBono]

Interesting post - just wondering how much clean water America could provide for the third world with the cost of one week of the Iraq war?

By the way, does the count of people without clean drinking water include the American soldiers and marines in Iraq that have their water supplied by KBR? Wonder if Cheney and McCain share the water that our military is forced to drink and use when they go into Iraq for their photo ops or do they have it flown in from Dubai? Wonder why the traveling war hero, John McCain, doesn't raise a stink about the KBR supply of drinking water that does not meet minimum standards? Oh, ya, right, KBR is part of Halliburton and they got a slew of contracts from Bush/Cheney so Johnnie will continue to keep quiet and kiss the appropriate asses.