Upon returning from a quick supermarket run today, Stephen and I found our water cooler standing in a puddle of water. The last time this happened, I was on my way to California. Luckily (or unluckily), our flight was delayed by several hours so I came home to wait only to find a pool of water in our entrance hall. It might have turned into a lake had I not come home to put a stop to it. Both times the leak was caused by a defective water bottle.

When the water delivery guy came to give us two new bottles, he took out the one with the hairline crack and asked if he could dump the water away in the sink. Busy wiping up the water on the floor, I told him to go ahead. A minute later, I realized that it was a total waste and ran to get him some pots and pans to catch the water. More than 10 liters of purified mineral water must have flowed into the pipes, gone forever. I’ve been feeling guilty over it all day. Even if I had kept the water in the bathtub, it would have been put to better use.

Jon Markman of MSN Money wrote in January that clean, bottled water was the number one most important thing survivors of the Kobe earthquake and South Asia tsunami needed.

The central problem is that less than 2% of the world?s ample store of water is fresh. And that amount is bombarded by industrial pollution, disease and cyclical shifts in rain patterns.

Markman recommends investing in water commodities especially when it becomes more precious than petroleum, the demand of which will most likely decrease as new technology becomes available.

Consider these facts from the World Water Council:

  • 1.4 billion people do not have access to safe water.
  • 2.3 billion inhabitants lack adequate sanitation.
  • 7 million people die each year of water-borne diseases, including 2.2 million children under the age of 5.
  • Daily water use per inhabitant totals 600 litres in residential areas of North America and Japan, and between 250 and 350 litres in Europe, while daily water use per inhabitant in sub-Saharan Africa averages just 10 and 20 litres.
  • In the past 100 years, the world population has tripled, but water use by humans has multiplied six fold.

I may skip my shower today as penance for the water I wasted.

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