World Water Day 2017

Today was the World Water Day 2017.

I don't want to make this post a long preaching about what we all already now. Water is an irreplacable source of life. For plants, for trees, for animals, for us. Let me walk you through the list of facts that we know about, but we usually don't find the time to put them side by side to see how serious the water shortage on Earth has grown.

Here are some most shocking and eye-opening facts I would like to share with you.

source: http://water.org

663 million people - 1 in 10 - lack access to safe water.

Twice the population of the United States lives without access to safe water.

1/3 of the global population lives without access to a toilet.

More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.

The water crisis is the #1 global risk based on impact to society (as a measure of devastation), as announced by the World Economic Forum in January 2015.

Women and girls often spend up to 6 hours each day collecting water

Globally, 1/3 of all schools lack access to safe water and sanitation

Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease

Diarrhea is the 3rd leading cause of child death, a majority of which are water-related

Time spent gathering water around the world translates to $24 billion in lost economic benefits each year.

Universal access to safe water and sanitation would result in $32 billion in economic benefits each year from reductions in health care costs and increased productivity from reduced illness

Water, sanitation and hygiene-related disease kills nearly 1 million people each year

In low and middle-income countries, 1/3 of all healthcare facilities lack a safe water source.

4,100 children die every day from diseases caused by contaminated water.

For more details on the problematics and statistic, download this few PDF pages shared by the UN.

http://www.unwater.org/downloads/Water_facts_and_trends.pdf

South Korea is on the list of Water-stressed countries. As was mentioned on KBS yesterday, what placed Korea on the list was not lack of resources, but the reckless consumption. Professionals claim, that if Korea doesn't make radical change, they will completely spend their resources in about 100 years.

Fact: In the year 2015 liters per person per day in Korea's capital was almost 300 liters.

Fact: In developing countries, 20 to 30 liters of water per person per day are considered adequate for basic human needs.

Fact: The Safe Drinking Water Foundation’s opinion is that 235 liters per person per day is a perfectly adequate amount of water to use.

http://www.safewater.org

What does water for people?

Aside from what all of us know, that it keeps us alive, fit and pretty, the KBS shared a short video on Aquatic therapy or Aquatic rehabilitation. For some of us, the ability of moving freely didn't come naturally. From some of us, it was taken by a drunk driver. From some of us, it was taken by a disease or age. Nevertheless, for many having a pool means feeling less dependent or impaired for a while. There is many videos on youtube to can watch to understand the meaning of this.

This video is from England, it's called WATSU therapy. Basically WATER + SHIATSU.

Korea has the program as well and it is becoming very popular here. It's a great form of relaxation and exercise for pregnant women as well!

WABA Korea - Worldwide Aquatic Bodywork Association.

https://waba.seoulrehab.or.kr/Home/Introduction

What can people do for the water?

Here is a small list of practically effortless hacks.

* Check your water meter; if you don’t have any water running but the meter is moving, you may have a leak. Check your taps regularly to make sure they aren’t leaking (a leak of one drop each second wastes approximately 10,000 liters of water each year: that amount of water could fill 85 bathtubs!) *Don’t leave the tap running at unnecessary times, such as when you are brushing your teeth, shaving, washing dishes soaping in the shower (If you use a cup to rinse your mouth instead of running water, you save 5 liters each time. That makes it 10~15 liters per day per person!) *When doing laundry, set the level appropriately. Front loading washing machines use less water than top-loading washing machines. *Wash your car with a sponge and bucket, instead of a hose or pressure washer. This can save up to 300 liters of water each time you wash your car! *Make sure your toilet doesn’t continue to run after you flush it (as this can waste up to 200,000 liters of water each year). A regular toilet uses 18 liters of water per flush. If you replace this with a toilet that uses 6 liters of water per flush, your total indoor use of water will be reduced by approximately 30 percent! *Consider installing a low-flow showerhead, which cuts the amount of water used for a shower in half (that can save more than 50 litres of water each time you shower!) or there are these new shower heads that track the amount of water you've just used and signal you by changing color, when you've reached certain limit. (https://www.hydrao.fr/en/). Sadly it doesn't seem to be available in Korea or Ebay yet. *If you handwash your dishes turn of the tap while soaping. If you have a dishwasher, make sure it's full when you run it. *Re-use! Your plants don't need tab water. They can easily live on collected rain water! Some people even use rain water in their fish tanks and clean their building stairs or balconies with it.

Anyway, I realize this post is not much fitness or even Korea related.

But I find it very much health related issue. If not for our generation, then for our children.

Cheers!

#eatinghabits #healthkorea