Time for Words for Water

Blog Action Day 2010 is Oct. 15. The issue this year is “water.” It is easy to participate if you are a blogger: just register your blog and get writing. With one-fifth of the world’s fresh water right at our shoreline, it is worth thinking about how many people suffer and even die because they don’t have access to clean water.

The Blog Action Day site provides some ideas that can get you started writing and also learning more about water problems, solutions and how to take action. Even if you don’t blog, you can check out the site and sign a petition, see which companies are supporters of clean water efforts, and more.

: Image by biverson via Flickr

Water is a women’s issue in Africa, where women are predominantly responsible for collecting water. Walking over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 40 pounds, they collect water for their community and often it is not safe to drink.

Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year. Locally, we had trouble with oil spills in Michigan this year and some continuing questions about whether Chicago cleans its waste water as well as it should. The river that runs through our city is one of the 40 percent of America’s rivers that are too polluted for fishing, swimming or aquatic life.

The way we live, from what we eat, to what we wear, we could be more cognizant of the amount of water that goes into products we consume. A cotton t-shirt can require as many as 400 gallons of water to produce. Jeans can suck down 1,800 gallons. In addition, any dyes and synthetics create waste that adds to water pollution.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.