Today, June 1st, an international team of 20 runners left New York in the Blue Planet Run 2007 sponsored by Dow Chemical Company. They will travel worldwide to draw attention to the growing water shortage crisis. U.S. News and World Report, June 4th, 2007, titled “Why You Should Worry About Water” reported the event. The magazine said the 20 runners “will run 24 hours a day in 10-mile individual relay segments for 95 days, passing the baton at more than 1,500 exchange points worldwide.” The Blue Planet Run Foundation hopes to rally people everywhere to help get fresh water to 20 million people by 2015.
When they say, “get freshwater to” they’re talking about mostly women and children, one in every five people, who spend up to 6 hours per day getting water from somewhere else. The water is hardly clean to begin with, and by time they get it back home, it’s surely contaminated. Water borne disease is the largest cause of death in the world. 6,000 children die every day from unsafe water and our planets fresh water is dwindling.
The cover story states that in the U.S. “supply is shrinking, pipes are aging, and few are willing to pay the price.” Of the developed countries, we pay the least for water per gallon @ $2.49. Imagine Denmark and Germany that pay $8.50 per gallon. The United Kingdom pays $7.20. But here lies the problem also. We’re spoiled. Like most people who have access to freshwater, we take it for granted and think of it as a natural occurring element and don’t want to pay for it. It’s kind of like the way we kicked when we started paying for airwaves for TV. $2.49 per gallon is a small price to pay, so small that our water mains and pipelines are in horrible disrepair in this country. Because we pay so little, there is little money to accomplish the repairs that are needed and soon.
Ask the citizens of New Jersey who suffered a water main break in the middle of the night. Imagine lying in bed and a wave of water rushes through your house high enough to go over your bed. We assume someone somewhere is taking care of things but in actuality funds to repair and maintain horribly aged pipelines, some are 80 years old, just don’t exist, and the problem continues to be overlooked year after year. We don’t seem to practice much preventative maintenance in this country. It’s more or less fix the disaster when it happens. Is this the way a wealthy, capitalist society operates? It’s shabby. I reported on the Bush administration cuts for federal money that affect community subsidies that would go to repair old water line infrastructures. What is everyone thinking? It looks like pass the buck again to me. But the pipes won’t hold forever. I wonder if they are that old, then how safe are they to carry drinking water?
Our drinking water in Michigan is not all that clean to begin with. A report on contaminants found in Lake Michigan showed traces of female hormone supplement, and ingredients from painkillers. It seems too many people do not think before flushing drugs down the drain or toilet. It is assumed it goes nowhere, is filtered and treated, but somehow it’s ending up back out into the lake where it’s in good enough amounts to be traceable. Anyone that says Americans don’t pollute any more than anyone else needs to stop and think many people in the 21st century do not have flushing toilets or hormones or painkillers to flush down toilets. These people are busy looking for food, water, and shelter. Developed nations obviously pollute the worst. We need to start thinking of others because our turn at water shortage is not that far off.
In Florida, fires surround Lake Okeechobee that is already down to 8.5 feet from 13 ft. from dry, hot weather. It’s a large, shallow lake but is considered as a backup water supply for 5 million people. 8.5 ft. of water versus a raging fire is not a good thing. Hopefully residents of Florida won’t need a backup water supply too soon, but the weather and fires are not cooperating. Let’s hope we don’t take water for granted so long that we lose the privilege of having it at our disposal.
Do one thing. Every time you finish doing yard work late into the evening, covered with sweat, grime on top of that, and a random supply of mosquito bites, think about not having the luxury of climbing into that warm shower. And when you do climb in, appreciate the heck out of it, enough to cut that shower short to conserve it for another time, for someone else. Funny what we relish so readily when we need it, we quickly forget when it’s over, something as simple as a shower.
