Water Issues

We always talk about oil and energy as being a big time problem arising now and would be even worst in the future but water is definitely a very big issue. Though 70 percent of the Earth is covered in water, how much of it can we really use is the question. It is said by the United Nations that about 1 billion people have no access to water and another 2 billion have access to water that is unhealthy. Water in developing nations is becoming worst. Many people in developing countries get diseases from the water that they use. When you see someone walking with a bucket on their head to retrieve water that is not sanitary.

"Water is the single most important environmental cause of poor health at tbe global level, but its impact goes beyond the health impacts we usually talk about," was said by Rheningans. I agree with this statement. I feel we as a country do not know how important water is to us. I have never been in a situation where I had to do without water. After reading this article and seeing that people can go days without showering, or even having access to water really leads me to think that I should be taking notice of what may happen to me in the near future.

Water issues are worst in rural and low income communities where groundwater is usually contaminated with chemicals. So though they are trying to use more bottled waters they still wouldn’t have enough bottled waters to do laundry or take a shower. Many countries also fight over water and are still fighting over water. Some individuals that went to visit a community where water was scarce noticed that people were told to boil their water but boiling sometimes wasn’t enough they told them to put a tip of bleach inside the boiling water to make it more sanitary. Of course a lot of people thought that was ridiculous because of how toxic bleach is. So that would not even work. Though they were boiling water it was not enough to make it sanitary.

After reading the article it just made me more aware of how scarce water can be. It may not be a problem to the United States right now but it can be a problem in the near future.

-Why is Water an Issue? Michael R. Greenberg, PhD