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World Water Day |
| Over 1000 people gathered on the Santa Monica Pier last Saturday morning for “World Water Day” to show solidarity to the more than one billion people worldwide who do not have access to clean water, mostly in Central Africa and Southeast Asia. “The event was a great success,” said Tiffany Lee, Starbucks marketing director. “Each year, we are able to double the amount of attendees who find water to be an issue.” With a growing population worldwide and global warming, an expected 2/3 of the world population will live in water stressed countries in 2025, and, according to CARE, almost 2.5 billion people do not have access to sanitation and are forced to live in degrading and unhealthy environments. “I am afraid I think that people really don’t know how many children die of preventable waterborne diseases in the world,” said Uli Imhoff Heine, director of development at Project Concern International (P.C.I.). More than five million people die of waterborne disease each year. “Access to water is a basic human right, yet it is a right denied to millions of people everyday day.’ As we gulp down water from our faucet or mineral water bottles, millions of men, women and children walk 10 miles each day to collect water and bring it back home for their families, which prevents them from going to school, or working. The International observance of World Water Day was initiated during a United nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio De Janeiro in 1992 and has been celebrated every March 22 ever since in many countries around the world. The event was created to incite people to take action and make them aware of the water issue in the world. According to the U.N., there is more than enough water, in total, for everyone’s basic needs, and only 50 litres of water is needed by one person each day for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitation. America, which breaks all records by using 12 times more water than the recommended minimum set by the U.N. and twice as much than Europe, is currently the biggest water user in the world and still have to become more aware of its impact…and responsibility. That is what Starbucks, CARE, International Medical Corps and Project Concern International strived to accomplish at the World Water Day Walk in Santa Monica last Saturday. These non- governmental organizations have each been recipients of the $1 million Starbucks Foundation/Ethos walk grant for clean water projects in developing countries. They each set up their own information booth where people could sign up for newsletters or find out how to take action. CARE, who works in 70 countries at fighting poverty in the developing world by empowering women, helped 60 million people last year. Some of their projects include irrigation, digging wells in Sierra Leone, building bathrooms and educating people about global hygiene. They used the grant received from Starbucks to support a project in Rwanda. P.C.I., which has water programs in 16 countries, understands that lasting change begins with people. According to Imhoff Heine, the key to P.C.I.’s success is the ability to mobilize the local residents who will ultimately benefit from the new water. They train communities to find solutions to their own situation or problems. As the walkers completed their loop along the beach and started filling up again the area set up for the event, they were welcomed by a warm applause, a free reusable bottle of Ethos water and a warm cup of coffee. They seemed tired, but proud of being a part of something that matters. As P.C.I so beautifully writes it: “A drop of water…is the key to life. Everything that lives depends on water, to drink, to replenish, to revive. Water is the foundation of survival, the life blood of the earth. Without it, we perish….its importance is unequalled to anything else.” |