more than my own personal waterworks

I know I’m just a big softie but I found myself bubbling like a baby each time one of those Chilean miners emerged from underground on Wednesday, jubilantly embracing everyone around them. I’m not sure what exactly set me off but seeing people so excited that these thirty-three ordinary men had been rescued and watching the heartfelt family reunions really tugged at my little heart. For once, it was so refreshing to switch on the TV or read the papers and it was just a flow of good news, all day.
Today is another day which goes some way to restore my faith in humanity. On this day, bloggers from all over are joining together for Blog Action Day 2010 to write about water issues in their communities and around the world.
So much of the time I am left feeling totally helpless about the vast issues facing our world. I simple bury my head and hope that someone will come up with some brilliant idea to make them go away. Today, however, I can play my tiny part and so can you by reading this post without nodding off.
A major issue that sets off my own personal waterworks is that nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water, which causes a litany of struggles, diseases and even death. Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions. How is that possible when we have so much excess and this is a solvable issue? Because those numbers are simply too big for us to really contemplate. The shocking statistics go on and on and they are real but we can do something. Did you know that it takes 24 litres of water to make one hamburger? It also takes 17 million barrels of oil to manufacture the bottles we use for bottled water, 86 percent of which will never be recycled. By simply making ourselves aware of the issues we can already start to counteract the problems.
So, will today be a day when you make a difference?

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.