The Burden of Thirst - Essay Example

While the people from the underdeveloped countries could use their meager earnings to improve their hygienic conditions, they cannot do so as they have to spend the money on treating hygiene-related ailments. The health records point out that as much as between 50 and 70 percent of their patients are treated for hygiene-related ailments.

It is apparent that making clean water available and easily accessible would go a long way in improving the lives of people in underdeveloped countries. It would reduce the amount of time they spend collecting water and reduce the amount of money they spend in treating hygiene-related ailments. The result would be more time available to engage in economically viable activities and more money saved. One agency that had identified this gap and attempted to fill it is WaterAid, a UK-based nonprofit organization. It started projects in the Konso district to make clean water available to residents by supplying them with water and chlorin and helping them build latrines. Other agencies that helped in alleviating the problem include; Water.org, CARE, and A Glimmer of Hope. Kingsolver, Barbara. “Fresh Water.” National Geographic Magazine.

Different parts of the earth’s surface experience varying moisture conditions, some being deserts while others paraenesis. But even in the driest of conditions when hardy desert creatures and plants struggle to survive, humans, whose bodies are made 66 percent water, scrape off every available water molecule to meet their needs.  This problem is only expected to worsen as global warming comes a reality and climate change occurs. The average earth temperature was raised by 0.74oC. While this figure may seem inconsequential, nevertheless it is responsible for the natural disasters that have been witnessed in the last number of years. Extreme flooding, drought, and storms have now become a common feature.

Heifer International, an NGO, and the Peruvian government are some of the organizations that have identified the escalating problem and put practical measures in place to combat it. They have encouraged residents of Bajo Piura to raise goats that eat the native mesquite plant and disperse its seeds in their dung. Bajo Piura is an area in Peru in which landless individuals have relocated. They have used the few available plants to sustain their lives and made the desertification problem even worse. Their situation worsens every successive year. Their women spend approximately 8 hours daily looking for water while their men spend digging wells that have almost no chance of producing water.

The tragedy of dwindling water resources was identified long before the effects of climate change become known. It is widely known that as long as man cannot practice restraining in exploiting, the available water resources will dwindle dramatically and whatever water is available will be locked in other environmental cycles like the ocean. To conserve and preserve the available water resources, man must practice restraint in exploiting resources and sustainably use what is available; otherwise, we will be without water before long.