Water is a unique and fascinating substance! We are confident that life as we know it cannot exist without the presence of clean water. While we are able to live several weeks without food, we can only live 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 is not short of water as such. If we divide the total 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth by the current population, 5.8 billion, we see we have 56 billion gallons apiece. The average person in the world has a daily requirement of water for sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs of about 13.2 gallons. Thus we have enough water down here to last each of us over 11 million years (not counting population growth)! And that doesn’t take into account the water cycle, our free recycling program.

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 the planet is in the oceans, and is, therefore, unusable for drinking because of the salt. Of the 2% of the planet's fresh water, 1.6% is unusable in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Most of the rest (0.36%) is out of reach in aquifers and wells. A mere trifle, just .036% of the planet's total water supply, is found in fresh water 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.

The problem is bad also because useable water is not evenly available to the world 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 of the world do not have access to safe water. Those 884 million amount to approximately one in eight people. Further, two and a half billion do not have improved sanitation, that is, a means to separate drinking water from waste water.

Major health issues throughout the world result from a lack of sanitary drinking water. Perhaps half of the people in hospital beds at any one time in the world are sick 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 totals a staggering 1.4 million children each year. Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time. Think of it: 88% of the cases of diarrhea worldwide are caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene.

Yes, deaths, crime, disease, an increase in birth defects, and decreased ability to do well in school are all direct results of inadequate water. In short, general economic decline is the result. An investment in pure water for a people, or in desalination of the sea, is an investment with big returns. On average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation for a third world people provides an economic return for them of eight US dollars.

Some want the western civilization to feel guilty for taking a shower or watering their lawns. This is faulty thinking. Lowering our living standard in use of water only borrows their problems. America has sufficient good, clean water because we have learned how to preserve it and where to get it. Our response to criticism should not be guilt but better stewardship and an increased willingness to share our knowledge with others. When we are frugal and generous with our water, we will set a higher standard for other nations to follow.