Bloggers Unite for the “Burden of Thirst”

BloggersUnite, in conjunction with WaterAidAmerica and megree.com, has invited bloggers to spread the word about the condition of water in developing countries: 4000 children die each day due to illnesses from lack of clean drinking water.

Clean water is essential for life but 1 in 8 of the world’s population doesn’t have access to it. WaterAid is looking to raise awareness about the need for clean water in developing countries, to convey the message that sanitation is a critical sector in human development outcomes.

Diarrheal diseases caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water kill more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, while in Africa diarrhea is now the biggest killer of under-fives according to a recent study in The Lancet. Some 4000 children dies needlessly every single day.

These are avoidable deaths; we have known their cause and the means to reduce them for generations. Watching children die who we can help to flourish is simply unacceptable.

Beyond the direct impact on health, WaterAid reports that lack of sanitation severely impacts other areas of human development. Children sick with diarrhea miss days on end from school, girls drop out of class because of a lack of sanitary facilities, while repeated illness stunts intellectual development. People chronically sick with diarrhea and other diseases related to unsafe sanitation and water are unable to work, while large proportions of health budgets are spent trying to treat these preventable illnesses, diminishing the economic prosperity of developing countries.  (Source)

Having lived part of my childhood in the D.R. Congo, a cause like this one is close to my heart. My son, who recently visited the Congo reported on the abysmal sanitary conditions. See his blog, The Congo Condition, which was written as part of his Senior Project. Seeing living conditions in other parts of the world changed his life.

What’s the point of this post? To raise awareness bien sûr. The lack of clean water is a very fixable problem. Let’s help eradicate it.  WaterAid is undertaking projects to enable communities to set up and manage water and sanitation systems in 17 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region

So please, SPREAD THE WORD (share this post), GET INVOLVED or SUPPORT.

Cheers!