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It has been said that in the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. As a society we have a social, ethical and intellectual obligation to educate our children about the finite resources on our planet. After all, our future depends on it!

Here are some startling facts about water from

BluePlanet.

Right now: 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean safe drinking water. THis accounts for approximately 1/6th of the planet's total population.

Half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people suffering from some type of water related illness.

There are 6,000 deaths around the world per hour due to the demand for clean drinking water dwarfing the available supply.

Lack of accessible drinking water keeps a large portion of the world's population in poverty.

You see, like many issues of global crisis, clean drinking water is about more than having a drink of water. Around the world in places like Africa, Afghanistan, India, parts of Asia, Central and South America children cannot go to school, women cannot go to work, economic activity is slowed and people migrate to already overpopulated cities all because there is not enough water. In places like these, the average person might use 2.64 gallons of water in a day. That is equivalent to approximately the flush of a toilet. In The United States, the average American uses between 100 and 175 gallons every day.

Lack of accesible clean drinking water keeps a large part of the world in poverty. It is the bottom rung on the economic pyramid. Instead of engaging in commerce or trade human beings walk hours a day to access water. Land cannot be irrigated. Crops cannot be grown. Food is not produced. There is nothing to trade. There is no wealth. Schools are not built. Health and nutrition are not sustained. And this is just the beginning. Disease runs rampant. Sanitation implodes. Death is constant and imminent. It is a question of survival.

Do you ever wonder, why me? Why was I was born in The United States? Why am I the lucky recipient of fresh clean water, education, health care, food, shelter? Is it chance? Is it luck? Does it give you just the faintest tinge of guilt? It is only borders that separate us. Only borders that decide life and death. For the privilidge of life in these United States I am grateful I believe it is always our responsiblity to teach children this gratitude that they might understand what it really means to wake up in a home with a faucet, walk to a water cooler at their school, play in a yard greened by sprinklers.

Just as important is our responsiblity to teach them compassion and humility. Conservation is a part of this. It is knowing that resources are limited. It is caring that we are part of a larger picture. It is understanding the fact that global crisis' face the planet and believing that we are here to be of service to one another. The planet is smaller than you think. We are each only a part of the problem or a part of the solution.

Learn more about this author, Nina Medeiros.
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