Drinking Water In Latin America

The amount of people who suffer and die each day from malnourishment is caused by unclean water. My grandparents have made me very fortunate by taking me and my family to places all around the world from Alaska to Europe. Most of these travels dropped me into worlds that most tourists never go. The jungles of Belize and the poor cities and towns of Mexico and much of Latin America. Many of the places we stayed in Latin America did not have clean tap water, thus drinking the water would bring on the so called Montezuma’s Revenge (diarrhea). By seeing these people living with faulty water systems, open air shacks, and hammocks for beds, my eyes have been opened to the extremities of water that a great amount of the world faces; I dream of making water a universal right to people.

I do not even realize the stipulations of just washing a small load of clothes, taking a shower, flushing the toilet, or washing my car. We have such a great amount of water in most places in the United States, that we do not realize how fortunate we are. 34% of that 1 in 9 people live in sub-Saharan Africa. Most African girls drop out of school when they hit puberty because of the lack of proper toilets. Not just their health is being diminished by the lack of clean water, but their education is as well. I long for Americans to realize the impact water has on everyone in the world. If everyone has awareness about these statistics, then perhaps It will lead to more contributions from the powers of the world that do have clean