Water: Human Right or Human Need?

The seven day focus on the world's water crisis ended Sunday with a pledge by more than 100 countries to strive for clean water and sanitation for billions in need and fight drought and flood.
While the Forum was met with over 25,000 people, the largest turn-out ever, it was also met with accusations of turning into a dismissed "trade-show."
The major debate being: Is water a basic human need or a basic human right? Brazil, Egypt and the United States agree to it as a need while numerous countries, led by Latin America, are already writing water in as a constitutional right.
Non-binding agreements were met including greater cooperation to ease disputes over water, measures to address floods and water scarcity, better management of resources and curbing pollution of rivers, lakes and aquifers.
One thing everyone agreed upon: as the population grows so to does the demand for the access to clean freshwater. The world's current population of 6.5 billion people is expected to grow to 9 billion by the year 2050 with the number of people living under severe water stress climbs to 4 billion. Water World

How Did You Use Your World Water Day Today?

I wasn't sure how to celebrate today's event (besides purchasing a few Charity: Water's this morning. I'm planning on giving them to my family for Easter tomorrow.) I decided after breakfast to go about my day as I would normally except that I am going to take a real notice of how much water I use.
To say that I need water in order to stay alive is an understatement.
As soon as I woke up I realized that I needed water just to start my day.. brushing my teeth, showering, and going to the bathroom. Then I need to drink it, I need it to make coffee, I need it to clean my fruits and veggies and I realized as I'm unloading my dishwasher that I also use it to clean. All before 10 a.m.
After getting dressed in my clean, previously washed clothes, I remembered that I wanted to put my plants outside today (It is so nice out) and water them. I also had to give Giant, the new pup, some water and Reptar, the iguana, some too. At this point I needed some more for myself as well.
Then I had some tea.
Making an early dinner for myself (It's Saturday night, I'm planning on going out later), I effortlessly filled a pot up with water to boil some penne. I then cleaned more vegetables. I drank more water. Giant needed more too.
As I'm sitting and waiting for my dinner to finish cooking, I tried to imagine living in an area of the world that has next to no access to clean, usable water. The closest realization that I can bring myself to comprehend without actually living without water, is that moving forward, whether it be personal advancements in life or an entire country of people trying to better their world, has to be next to impossible. Without wells or proper irrigation, third world countries will not be able to advance themselves to a sustainable way of life.
So instead of spending X amounts of money on alcoholic beverages tonight, I decided to instead use that money to buy a couple more Charity: Waters. It's the least a girl living in NJ who has never known to be deprived of water can do.

.My neighbor using water to wash off his bike this evening.

.As I was finishing today's post Patrick gave Giant a bath.

.Reptar loves to swim.

.We also live on the water.

Drink Up.. While You Can

World Water Day is this Saturday, the 22nd, and the United Nations calls out a warning just in time for the big day:
By 2025, fully a third of the planet's growing population could find itself scavenging for safe drinking water.
Oh jeeze. And the people who are effected? The people living in third world countries. In fact there are already a person dying every 20 seconds as a result from unsanitary drinking water. And the result of death does not seem to be the only crisis projected to come from it.
"In the coming decades, water scarcity may be a watchword that prompts action ranging from wholesale population migration to war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found," comment a team of researchers in a review of water purification technology published Thursday in the British journal Nature.
While new projects, technology, governments and heroes of the world try to avert this emergency, a new catastrophe has appeared in the horizon: Global Warming. Rising sea levels are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia, according to UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Become a hero yourself and give the gift of life this Easter season. Check out Charity: Water where 100% of the donations goes to water and sanitation's projects.