Access to healthy water
Access to healthy water is vital to human life itself; so the impact it has on a developing child is of immeasurable size. In fact, a child with no access to healthy water will no doubt become sick. Once the body is troubled with an unhealthy source of water, it will lack the nutrients required for other organs such as the kidney, heart, and brain. Once these deductions become a problem, signals are sent to the brain to help dissolve these problems. However, if the brain is not able to focus on learning and development, the child will constantly fall behind in development and in other categories such as motor skills. An example of this comes from the country of Yemen, where fresh water is extremely scarce. In fact, only about 25% of the population has access to clean water; this means that child development is a huge struggle within the country. Although the conservative culture of the country inspires its children to be tough and to pursue education no matter the circumstance, the inhabitants of the country are clearly at a disadvantage. This inspires me to take advantage of our better circumstances in the United States. In the United States, we do have clean water at our fingertips so that is not an issue for the majority. Therefore, it inspires me to teach the children who do have the capable brains that are fully supported by the necessary, clean water. I will try my best to take advantage of the advantage our kids have; to teach them to their full capability while helping their brains develop to the maximum potential.
Children line up for many hours to get the dirty water
How hard for children to line up for some hours and end up without water
Reference
Whitehead. F. (2015) “Water scarcity in Yemen: the country's forgotten conflict.” Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/apr/02/water-scarcity-yemen-conflict
I believe that some people in the U.S., myself included, do take clean drinking water for granted since it is readily available to the majority of us, like you pointed out. I can't imagine what life must be like for people who live in countries, such as Yemen, where clear water is scarce and do not have enough to drink. It's great to read that you are inspired by this public health issue and are willing to do something about it. Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteThank you for pointing out how we treat access to clean water as a novelty, when it has a great impact on our society and children. I lived in Texas for a while and during droughts, water was not offered at restuarants without the patron requesting it. It was at that time that I started to realize that clean water is a precious commodity and we have to be very careful not to be wasteful.
ReplyDeleteGood Evening Hanadi,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your viewpoint on the importance of the access of water. This is another situation I can attest to, as recently our family lived in a rural town in Arkansas, where there was water with too much lime (calcification). Every time we would wash with the water, it would dry our families skin completely out in patches. It was always as if the water was stripping the nutrients from our skin. I began talking to several locals and found out that many people knew that the water was so bad that they only cooked, bathed, and drank bottled water. Older elders who I spoke with also had their adult children to come and boil their water and bring them bottled water just so they would have access. My family had to live on bottled water for over a year for most daily needs. It was ONE of the harder things I had to try and gain access to, however, I did realize that there were millions of people who were in other parts who did not have the same opportunity. I think more measures should be put into place worldwide, for healthy access to water.