Clean water a social justice issue!

If you’re anything like me, the needs of the world can feel paralyzing sometimes. Extreme poverty, human trafficking, lack of practical education, and other social justice issues break my heart, and figuring out how I can fight for justice in these areas can be overwhelming.

But while we as individuals can’t fight every battle, we can be strategic in our approach.

Whether you’re passionate about combating extreme poverty, supporting anti-trafficking efforts, or empowering education around the world, choosing to support clean water efforts is an advantageous means to help solve those problems. Clean water is inextricably linked to many other social justice issues.

Here are a few ways that choosing to run for clean water impacts other social issues:

Effects of Water Shortages

1. Poverty
2. Hunger
3. Starvation
4. Thirst
5. Weak immune system
6. Decrease in crop yields
7. Destruction of habitats
8. Endangerment of species
9. Loss of biodiversity
10. Unhygienic conditions
11. Spread of diseases
12. Low levels of education
13. Migration
14. Human trafficking

Extreme poverty

Water and extreme poverty are inextricably linked. Providing access to consistent sources of clean water is crucial to poverty reduction. Safe drinking water and sanitation increase the percentage of a community’s population that is able to attend school and remain gainfully employed. Water-related diseases are a constant threat to health, keeping people out of the workforce and in poverty. The U.N. estimates that sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 200 million hours per day collecting water!

When employees have access to clean water and proper sanitation, employment rates increase and communities have a greater chance of thriving. For women, in particular, access to nearby sources of clean drinking water, toilets and latrines, and education about proper hygiene provides them with the health and the time to attend school or work. Climate change is disrupting weather patterns, leading to extreme weather events, unpredictable water availability, exacerbating water scarcity and contaminating water supplies. Such impacts can drastically affect the quantity and quality of water that children need to survive.

Low Level of Education

When a community’s children are unable to attend school, it perpetuates the cycle of poverty. An estimated 227 million school days are lost each year from water-related illness. Many children are simply too sick with diarrhea or other preventable water-related diseases to go to school. Children, usually girls, must also help their families retrieve water, excluding them from the opportunity to attend school. Girls are also forced to miss school when there is no latrine to give them a private place to take care of their hygiene needs during menstruation.

Human trafficking

In developing countries, girls and women are primarily responsible for retrieving water. On average, they walk 6 kilometers (just under 4 miles) every day, sometimes multiple times a day, to provide water to their families. They must walk far from home, putting them in dangerous situations where they risk assault, abduction, and sale into human trafficking.

Providing clean water to their villages allows girls to cease their daily treks through isolated, dangerous places and thus protects them from becoming the next “missing ones” from their communities.

Fighting to provide clean water is a foundational way to aid many other complex social justice issues that face oppressed and impoverished communities.

Today, a change in climate is felt primarily through a change in water. Millions of children are at risk.

1. Extreme weather events and changes in water cycle patterns are making it more difficult to access safe drinking water, especially for the most vulnerable children.
2. Around 74 per cent of natural disasters between 2001 and 2018 were water-related, including droughts and floods. The frequency and intensity of such events are only expected to increase with climate change.
3. Around 450 million children live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability. This means they do not have enough water to meet their everyday needs.
4. When disasters hit, they can destroy or contaminate entire water supplies, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid to which children are particularly vulnerable.
5. Rising temperatures can lead to deadly pathogens in freshwater sources, making the water dangerous for people to drink.
6. Contaminated water poses a huge threat to children’s lives. Water and sanitation related diseases are one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 years old.
7. Every day, over 700 children under 5 die from diarrhea linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
8. Climate change exacerbates water stress — areas of extremely limited water resources — leading to increased competition for water, even conflict.
9. By 2040, almost 1 in 4 children will live in areas of extremely high water stress.
10. Rising sea levels are causing fresh water to become salty, compromising the water resources millions of people rely on.

Climate change is happening now. We must act, and water is part of the solution.

Adapting to the water effects of climate change will protect children’s health and save their lives. Using water more efficiently and transitioning to solar powered water systems will reduce greenhouse gases and further protect children’s futures.

The world needs to get water smart. Everyone has a role to play, and we cannot afford to wait.

Solutions for Water Scarcity

1. Population control measures
2. Stricter regulations for farming
3. Reduction in the use of chemicals in farming
4. Reduction in mining practices
5. Desalination of sea water
6. Technological advancements
7. Mitigate pollution
8. Construction of better water distribution infrastructure
9. Save water whenever possible
10. Extensive research
11. Education
12. Convincing family and friends