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World Water Day 2006 

Today is World Water Day.

I know what you're thinking. "Water has a DAY?" Mothers get a day. Fathers, too. Columbus gets a day. So does Martin Luther King Jr. Saints Valentine and Patrick have a day. Secretaries, er, um ... Administrative Assistants, Grandparents, Ghosts and Goblins. And oh my, does Nationalism and Independence have a day!

So, why in the world does Water need a DAY?

Well, I figure if the greeting card companies, candy companies, florists, and governments can give us a long litany of holidays, memorials, and mindless party days, surely one of the most basic units of human sustenance deserves a day, too.

So, in recognition of World Water Day 2006, here are a few important facts for you:

-- Nearly 1.1 billion (with a 'B', people!) lack access to safe drinking water
-- The lack of clean water kills almost 4500 children every day!
-- There were 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004 and 90% of those were children under age 5.

But here's the biggest factoid of the day:

Consumers in the USA and other developed industrialized nations spend an estimated $100 billion every year on Bottled Water! Wait, there's more. The world's drinking water crisis could be cut in half over the next decade just by spending $30 billion each year. That's right, for 30% of what we spend unnecessarily on bottled water we could ensure a supply of drinkable water for more than half of those who presently do without.

We have perfectly good, drinkable, clean tap water available everywhere we go. But we wastefully purchase bottled water which has been shipped needlessly from some other place while nearly one-fifth of the world's population is compelled to drink unsafe water. And apparently in some cases that wonderfully tasty water we drink from plastic bottles has been extracted from various "exotic" locales so that even those local communities and villages risk running out of good water because of the practices of water bottlers like Coca-Cola's Dasani brand.

So, forget Columbus and St. Patrick. I say, "Happy World Water Day!" Now, let's do something about it. I suggest we start by taking some of the money we spend on bottle water ... or bridges to nowhere ... or perhaps pre-emptive military invasions and invest in solving one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises.

As a Christian who has grown up among conservative believers I've been part of a segment of this country that has often staked out a significant political position on defending a "right to life." But what exactly is a "right to life?" Are unborn children in the US more entitled to this right than the tiny malnourished and endangered children of the developing world who have no water? Water! It's one of the Big Three! Air, Water, Food. They could have clean water, if only we had the will to bring it to them. I'll close with a quote for you to consider:

"There is some hope, I think, in the idea of the commonwealth, which seems to acknowledge than we all have a common interest or share in the land, an interest that precedes our interest in private property. Of the precedence of our share in the common wealth the best evidence is that we share also a common health; the two, in fact, are inseparable. If we have the "right to life," as we have always supposed, then that right must stand upon the further right to air, water, food, clothing, and shelter." :: Wendell Berry, "Private Property and the Common Wealth"

What exactly is a right to life without water? They are indeed inseparable.

So even while some are so active in defending the right to life, I have to wonder if we are not guilty of infanticide by neglect.