Imagine it’s seven o’clock in the morning. You snooze your alarm a couple of times, get out of bed and run a steaming hot shower. When you get out 15 minutes later, you notice that the house plant your friend gave you for your birthday is looking a bit neglected. You grab a glass, fill it up at the sink and drown the plant back to life before rinsing last night’s dishes and stacking them in the dishwasher. You turn on the coffee machine, use the toilet, grab a glass of water, brush your teeth and run out the door. When you get in the car, you realise you left your drink bottle on the kitchen bench. With no time to run back and get it, you go on your way. After all, there’s water everywhere.
Your morning routine might seem pretty standard - but the harsh reality is that you used more safe water in your shower than someone in sub-Saharan Africa will use all day.
A huge 3.5 million people die from water and sanitation related causes each year, with 99 percent of these deaths occurring in the developing world. 650 million people worldwide don't have access to safe water at all. Water in rural Zimbabwe is collected from rivers. Many children contract preventable water borne diseases like diarrhoea, which kills more children than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Others tragically drown while trying to fill their buckets. Women in sub-Saharan Africa spend a collective 16 million hours a day collecting drinking water while children spend four million hours each day. Water can be more than 15 kilometres away and is collected in heavy buckets, which are then balanced on their shoulders and heads as they return. Some areas have open wells, though they pose significant health and safety risks of their own. Parents fear that their children will fall into the open wells near schools. Teachers in some areas have stopped going to work because they fear water contamination. A lack of safe water has a flow on effect, impacting health, nutrition, education, livelihood and so much more. We need your help to provide safe water to rural Zimbabwe and reduce negative impacts on these communities.
We're not saying you should stop showering - but it’s worth considering what impact you could have by drinking only water in September. Safe Water September is a challenge to drink nothing but water for the entire month of September. While doing this, we encourage you to raise funds for bore water projects in rural Zimbabwe. For every $20 you raise, one person will gain access to life-changing, life-saving safe water. We look forward to seeing you become a part of the challenge, and in turn, a part of the change.
Check out www.safewaterseptember.org.au to sign up today.