Litany of Water as a Basic Right for Life

Response: Let all who have nothing, come to the water.

Millions of people around the world face water shortages. Many millions of children die every year from water-borne diseases.
Response
“We need to free women and girls from the daily chore of hauling water, often over great distances. We must involve them in decision-making on water management. We need to make sanitation a priority. This is where progress is lagging most.” (Kofi Annan) Response
There are 1.1 billion people or 18% of the world’s population who lack access to safe drinking water. About 2.6 billion people or 42% of the total lack access to basic sanitation. Response
At any one time, half the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases. Response

Response: How can we come to the water?

1/3rd of our rivers, 1/2 of our estuaries, and 1/2 of our lakes are too polluted for fishing or swimming. Response.
Freshwater animals are disappearing five times faster than land animals. Response
Less than 3% of the Earth’s water is freshwater and over 2% is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. That leaves less than 1% of all the water on Earth for our agriculture, industries, and communities. Response
Each American uses 153 gallons of water per day; each Briton uses 88 gallons, each Asian 23, and each African 12 gallons. Research estimates that 13 gallons per day is the minimum needed to sustain human life. Response

Response: And let all who toil, let them come to the water.

For a family of six, collecting enough water for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene may mean hauling heavy water containers from a distant source for an average of three hours a day. Most often this is the work of women and girls. Response.
Twenty years of oil industry activity have left 30,000 people in Ecuador’s northeast Amazon region with no clean water. The issue is now in the courts. Response
The CIA predicts water scarcity for half of the world’s population in ten years. At the same time, the United States government has removed water as a human right from the statements of the last several global water conferences. Response