Note from Alycia Morales, Senior Editor of Inspire a Fire:
Most of us understand what it’s like to suffer from a case of diarrhea, and we understand that it isn’t comfortable. We also understand the need for medical attention when it lasts too long, as we begin to suffer symptoms of dehydration. What we don’t understand and cannot comprehend is what it’s like to experience this to the degree that many in our world suffer it. To near death or dying. The way to prevent this from happening? A supply of clean, uncontaminated drinking water. Not only would this solution prevent diarrhea, it would also prevent many other diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever, Hepatitis A.
Help support Living Water International today. Read today’s post; watch the video. And click through to make a donation. There are people in this world ready to spring into action and drill a fresh water well in a nation we may never set foot in. But our hearts could go there…
At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.
Nearly 90 percent of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Every year, there are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water; this results in more than 2.2 million deaths each year—the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.
The weakest members of communities are the most vulnerable; every day water-related diseases claim the lives of 5000 children under the age of five. That’s roughly one every 15 seconds.
“Clean water and sanitation are among the most powerful preventative medicines for reducing child mortality. They are to diarrhea what immunization is to killer diseases such as measles or polio: a mechanism for reducing risk and averting death.” – United Nations Development Program, 2006
Help make a difference in the health of entire communities by going to Living Water International.
Courtesy of Living Water International
