Water
Page 1
Results 1. We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water The Guardian (London) - Final Edition, March 8, 2006 Wednesday, COMMENT; Pg. 32, 923 words, Kevin Watkins
Return to List 1 of 1 DOCUMENT
The Guardian (London) - Final Edition March 8, 2006 Wednesday
We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water
BYLINE: Kevin Watkins SECTION: COMMENT; Pg. 32 LENGTH: 923 words The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year Halving the proportion of the world without access to clean water would cost a month's bottled water in Europe and the US Nobody reading this started the day with a two-mile hike to collect the family's daily water supply from a stream. None of us will suffer the indignity of using a plastic bag for a toilet. And our children don't die for want of a glass of clean water. Perhaps that's why we have such a narrow view of what constitutes a "water crisis". Dwindling reservoirs and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often, and we've got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, there could be a hosepipe ban in the home counties. In the next 24 hours diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation will claim the lives of 4,000 children. The annual death toll from this relentless catastrophe is larger than the population of Birmingham. Dirty water poses a greater threat to human life than war or terrorism. Yet it barely registers on the radar of public debate in rich countries. At any one time, close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. These rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods, and undermine education potential. The statistics behind the crisis make for grim reading. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, 2.6 billion people still have no access to even the most rudimentary latrine. Over one billion have no source of drinking water.
Results 1. We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water The Guardian (London) - Final Edition, March 8, 2006 Wednesday, COMMENT; Pg. 32, 923 words, Kevin Watkins
Return to List 1 of 1 DOCUMENT
The Guardian (London) - Final Edition March 8, 2006 Wednesday
We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water
BYLINE: Kevin Watkins SECTION: COMMENT; Pg. 32 LENGTH: 923 words The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year Halving the proportion of the world without access to clean water would cost a month's bottled water in Europe and the US Nobody reading this started the day with a two-mile hike to collect the family's daily water supply from a stream. None of us will suffer the indignity of using a plastic bag for a toilet. And our children don't die for want of a glass of clean water. Perhaps that's why we have such a narrow view of what constitutes a "water crisis". Dwindling reservoirs and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often, and we've got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, there could be a hosepipe ban in the home counties. In the next 24 hours diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation will claim the lives of 4,000 children. The annual death toll from this relentless catastrophe is larger than the population of Birmingham. Dirty water poses a greater threat to human life than war or terrorism. Yet it barely registers on the radar of public debate in rich countries. At any one time, close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. These rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods, and undermine education potential. The statistics behind the crisis make for grim reading. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, 2.6 billion people still have no access to even the most rudimentary latrine. Over one billion have no source of drinking water.