Are We Running Out of Safe Water?

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Berkey Filter Review

Water is a life giving substance! Both scientists and civilians are aware that life cannot continue without liquid water. People are able to live weeks without food but merely days without water. Recent moon explosions were planned for the purpose of, hopefully, detecting the presence of water through analyzing the dust, for moon colonization is virtually impossible without it.

The earth contains plenty of water for us all. It contains 326 million trillion gallons of water, meaning we could each have our own 56 billion gallons. For sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, the average person in the world has a daily requirement of about 13.2 gallons of water. At that rate, the present population has enough water for each of us for over 11 million years! That doesn’t take into consideration the free recycling system provided for us called evaporation and condensation.

Of course, this is a little misleading for not all (or even most) of this water on earth is in a useable form. Ninety-eight percent of the water on earth is in the oceans, and is, therefore, too salty for use. Of the 2% of the planet’s fresh water, 1.6% is locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Most of the rest (0.36%) is out of reach in aquifers and wells. Only about .036% of the planet’s total water supply is found in lakes and rivers. That’s still thousands of trillions of gallons, (in fact, 392 million gallons each) but it’s a very small amount compared to all the water available. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.

To exacerbate the problem, this fresh water is not evenly available to the population. The average American uses more water taking a five-minute shower than the typical person living in a slum in a developing country uses in a whole day. Nearly one billion people lack access to safe water. Those 884 million amount to approximately one in eight people. Also 2.5 billion do not have improved sanitation, meaning they do not have a means to separate drinking water from waste water.

Major health issues throughout the world result from a lack of sanitary drinking water. One estimate is that half of all those in hospital beds at any one time are there because of a water related disease. On average a child dies from a water-related disease every 15-20 seconds in the world, and the usual cause is diarrhea. That is 1.4 million children each year. Children of the poor often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies continually. We are told that 88% of cases of diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene.

Poor water results not only in deaths, but also in more crime, more disease, increase in birth defects, and decreased ability to do well in school, among other things. In short, general economic decline is the result. Investing in ways to purify water, or to desalinate the sea are investments that bring returns. It is estimated that on average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation provides an economic return of eight US dollars.

Some want the western civilization to feel guilty for taking a shower or watering their lawns. This is fallacious thinking. Lowering our living standard only borrows their problems. The main reason America has sufficient good, clean water is that we have learned where to get it and how to preserve it. We shouldn’t feel guilty; we should be more aware of our need to be good stewards of it, and we should be more willing to share our technology with others. When we are frugal and generous with our water, we will set a higher standard for other nations to follow.

But what if you are on well water or city water that has bad taste or odors. You would be benefited by an activated charcoal water filter. The Berkey Filter are the best line of activated charcoal filter we are aware of. Check out the Imperial Berkey or another model. One amazing feature is that each set of filters they ship with can be re-cleaned to purify up to 6,000 gallons of drinking water.