Safe drinking water is so important to each and every human life on this planet, whether you live in the United States or halfway around the world. Safe drinking water is the stuff of life, and quite literally so. In fact, the typical human being is only able to survive for just a few days without water, though a human that is in otherwise good health can survive for a few weeks without food.
Water is essential to every function of our body. We need water to stay hydrated and healthy. In fact, a good portion of each and every one of our bodies is made up of water and nothing else. Safe drinking water, therefore, can have a profoundly positive effect on your health.
But safe drinking water is not necessarily as easy to come by as many people think. In fact, humans need to drink freshwater – but only about three percent of all of the water on this planet is considered to be freshwater. And of that small amount, an even smaller percentage is actually considered to be suitable for drinking – a nearly nonexistent, in the grand scheme of things, one percent. Taking care of our water is absolutely essential if we hope to one day have safe drinking water for all.
Even here in the United States, which many people view as a land of prosperity and opportunity, getting safe drinking water is not always as easy as it seems. From groundwater depletion to ground water contamination and groundwater pollution, there are many things that can stand between safe drinking water and the people who need it even in this country.
For one thing, we get the vast majority of our safe drinking water from groundwater sources, up to ninety five percent of it here in the United State. But, unfortunately, it is estimated that a staggering eighty percent of that groundwater has actually been contaminated by nearby industrial plants. And on top of that, more than half of all industrial waste – up to seventy percent – is dumped into various water sources all around the country, contaminating them and rendering them virtually unusable – at least for the purposes of safe drinking water.
Chemical spills pose another very real problem when it comes to the groundwater contamination that is faced by this country. While many think of chemical spills as isolated incidents, this could not be farther from the truth in reality. In fact, it’s estimated that as many as sixteen thousand chemical spills will occur over the course of a single year in the United States alone, let alone in any other part of the world, where water quality is often questionable as well, especially when it comes to the quality of safe drinking water.
All too often, chemical spills occur on highways that are close to bodies of what once were able to provide safe drinking water to the people in the area – and all throughout the country. But the runoff from said chemical spills can be hugely detrimental indeed, and can not only pollute the water source in question but can destroy a great deal of the surrounding wildlife and natural ecosystem as well.
Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken to ensure the quality of and access to safe drinking water for all. Groundwater contamination remediation, for instance, has taken off in recent years. Groundwater monitoring and remediation can help to transform a once toxic and polluted source of groundwater into one that is able to be used and consumed again. Of course, this is highly important for many people here in the United States who are not able to access clean water sources otherwise.
The quality of the water that we drink is incredibly important. If we don’t have access to clean drinking water, we set ourselves up for a whole host of problems not only here in the United States but all around the world, affecting people of all different ages and backgrounds the world over.
