World Water Week

Availability of clean, fresh water is a global issue. The Water Project recognizes the importance of this issue and is trying to help countries, currently India and Africa, get access to clean water. This organization gets help and donations from many places including student organizations. BGSU Net Impact held a World Water Week

Water is essential to every human life. Most of us never think about where our water comes from because of our instantaneous access to this clean, temperature controlled resource. The common worry of water is how much the bill is every month.

We recognize water crises when they are close to home. The United States has not been without water conflict. John Muir described the Hetch Hetchy Valley (in Yellowstone National Park) as “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.” Not everyone agreed with this. San Francisco was in need of water and won Congressional approval to build the O’Shaughnessy Dam that buried the valley in water.  Muir fought to protect Hetch Hetchy but in the end, need for water trumped the beauty of nature.

Water is still an issue for the U.S. today.

There are dry states like Arizona that are home to unsustainable cities. But that is a man made issue of water. Phoenix is an unsustainable city built in a desert climate. It has limited amounts of water for its population of over 1,000,000 and yet there are swimming pools in backyards and green golf courses. Golf courses in the middle of the desert!

But what about countries that don’t have access to clean water?

The Water Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization that helps communities around the world that suffer from lack of access to safe drinking water. Currently, they are working on bringing clean water to Africa and India. According to statistics from The Water Project, “nearly 80% of illnesses in developing countries are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.”

Consumption of dirty water can cause: 

• Typhoid
• Cholera
• Hepatitis
• Diarrhea
• Dysentery

What people are doing to help.

Net Impact, an organization at Bowling Green State University, spread awareness by participating in World Water Week this past week (March 20-25). Moving to inside the union because of weather, net impact spread awareness to University students about this water crisis. The crowded union was filled with busy students rushing to one place or another but still many of them paused to look at the table with dirty water bottles and people in blue tie dyed shirts.

“If you guys donate a dollar that can supply a child with water for 40 days,” Haley Fowler, a net impact member, said. Students could donate money, buy tie dye World Water Week t-shirts, or donate money to carry a bottle of dirty water with an awareness label about one of the many diseases contracted through unsafe drinking water.

Setting up a table and taking donations was just one small part for net impact’s World Water Week campaign. In the afternoon, volunteers could be seen on what looked to be a small parade;  “Water Walk,” as Paul Hemminger called it on BGSU World Water Week’s facebook page. On this water walk, some students carried a banner that said World Water Week and some carried buckets of water.

Tags: Activism, Africa, BGSU, Hetch Hetchy, India, John Muir, Net Impact, Phoenix, The Water Project, volunteer, Water, Water Crisis, World Water Week