Living Sustainably: Water conservation is vital.
Our water abundance is amplified by living in a state surrounded by the Great Lakes, which not only provides us with a near limitless source of fresh water, but also creates the perception: Water is plentiful, so why conserve?
Consider the Poor Water Map of the world in which countries are sized according to the proportion of people without reliable access to safe water.
Compare the U.S. to the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa or to India or Indonesia, where a large percentage of the people, sometimes upwards of 50 percent, lack access to safe drinking water.
Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that 884 million people lack even basic clean drinking water service – about one in nine people.
Very few of these 884 million people live in the United States; perhaps none live in West Michigan.
Many in the world live below these “water poverty” minimums, while we use more than 10 times this amount.
Water issues are basically local in nature.
Nevertheless, our use of water here in West Michigan should be understood within a global context, something that does not come naturally in our region of water abundance.
To act locally and globally to address water issues, Google “household water conservation” (local) and “clean water organizations” (global) for ideas.