Recently there was a huge tournament in Las Vegas that had a 1 million dollar buy in, the largest ever. The winner received a whopping 18.3 million dollars and 5.4 million went to the charity, One Drop. One Drop is a charity whose mission is to bring clean water to those who do not have it.
I knew that there was a problem in the world, but I did not know it was such a serious problem. According to the onedrop.org website, approximately 1 billion people in the world lack adequate access to clean, potable water. That is a staggering amount, 14% of the world's 7 billion people.
One issue that was especially surprising was how the lack of water affects women and girls around the world.
From the One Drop website:
Too often, women are not included in the decision-making process surrounding water issues, even though the struggle to get water typically falls on their shoulders.
The task of gathering water can take up to four hours a day. Moving as much as 100 kg of water over many kilometres means risking health and personal safety; in certain cases, there is no choice but to go through areas that leave them vulnerable to attack by people or wild animals.
Over 70% of those who collect water under such circumstances are women and girls. As such, the daily chore prevents tens of millions of girls from going to school, and those who do find the opportunity to attend school often leave due to inadequate sanitation facilities.
Women are also more susceptible to waterborne diseases because it is they who care for ill family members and wash clothing in rivers filled with contaminants and bilharzias (blood flukes).
Time lost on collecting water could be better spent on life-improving activities such as going to school or learning a trade. Safe local water pumps can give them more of that precious time. Furthermore, cutting down the duration of a woman’s daily water tasks to one hour puts an extra US $100 into her pocket every year.
This poker tournament raised my awareness of a serious public health issue that could be solved by a worldwide collective effort. I will definitely try and educated those around me about this issue as I think this could eventually affect the world, especially with the global climate changes we are experiencing. Kinda like Waterworld.
Reference
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