Astronomers were excited last month at reports of newly discovered planets!
Why? Because they contain water, and quite simply, water is necessary for life.
Just let that sink in for a minute, and ponder…. Let’s look at Barragem de Bravura over the years.
Pictures……
These are pictures from the last 3 years of the lake near our home. Luckily we do not depend on it for our blueberries, we collect our own rainwater in our four lakes and our boreholes. But local overuse of water (eg Avocado plantations which are the new “thing”) and dry, dry summers and less rain in winter is depleting water supplies in the South West Algarve, and nobody -politically at least- seems to be prepared to do anything about it. So if we all want to go on living, we will have to make sure something is done about it.
Now we can buy water in bottles but that is a really bad thing for the planet as we all know, and that results in what we found on Alvor beach on 18thSeptember – pic isabelle. We collected 27 kg of waste, half of it plastic. Praia da Luz now has a Gobi-which does help-pics– but surely we have to use recyclable bottles, and Change for the World will soon be selling refillable recycled aluminium bottles. These hold 500 mls and should last at least a seasons beach trips and even if you loose them or leave them somewhere, they can still go on being recycled. Picture of bottle….
But we are fortunate compared with 25% of the planet, who have limitedaccess to clean water, and cannot buy any. The wonderful charity- Waterexplains that over seven hundred million people live in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water for their family. Not only does walking for water keep children out of school or take up time that parents could be using to earn money, but the water they bring back often carries diseases that can make them sick.
But access to clean water means education, income and health – especially for women and kids. Consider health, time and education in these areas:-
- Diseases from dirty water kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
43% of those deaths are children under five years old. Access to clean water and basic sanitation can save around 16,000 lives every week.2
- In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.3 4
Access to clean water gives communities more time to grow food, earn an income, and go to school — all of which fight poverty.
- Clean water helps keep kids in school, especially girls.
Less time collecting water means more time in class. Clean water and proper toilets at school means teenage girls don’t have to stay home for a week out of every month.
The Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP)
report that our planet faces an acute water crisis.
2.2 billion people lack reliable access to safely managed drinking water
4.2 billion people live without access to safely managed sanitation
60% of the world’s population lives in water-stressed basins
By 2050, global demand for water will increase by20-30%
In heavily polluted areas (common in low-income nations), declining water quality could reduce economic growth by one third
They say that these limited water supplies are under increasing pressure from poor management, growing pollution, degraded watersheds, and climate change! Hmmm,that resonates with me- see the start of this article!
So, perhaps we should do something. Write to your politicians. Conserve water. Reuse water containers. Have a look at Changefortheworld.live and see if you can give something back to help
people in low income nations survive and grow. Or give to charitywaterdirect.
And if you really want to make a difference, consider, just once a year, forgoing a slap up meal for two, having instead a simple meal of soup, bread, fruit and some lovely fresh pure water. Give the money to the charities mentioned, or A Rochafor bio sand filters, €100 would buy a filter that gave the gift of pure water to a big family for a whole year.