Long Walk To Water

Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water describes a hot, sunny day in Southern Sudan, where an 11 year old girl named Nya was on her first two hour walk of the day, to fetch water for her family from a pond that was located two hours away from her home. She makes the walk every day, twice a day, carrying a giant plastic container. The journey takes her half a morning while the other one takes half a night. While she is one out of thousands who walk hours a day just to be able to find water for their families, hundreds of millions of people in the United States turn on a faucet, open a bottle and drink clean refreshing water in a matter of seconds. While the majority of United States citizens live with easy access to clean water, millions of people

So plentiful, in fact, that almost every single person in the country takes it for granted. On average, the U.S uses 15-30 gallons of water every time a shower is taken, 35-50 gallons every time a bath is taken, 4-7 gallons every time a toilet is flushed, and 1 gallon every time someone brushes their teeth. (U.S Environmental Protection Agency 2). These statistics are not only embarrassing but outrageous when compared to the amount of children who die every day because a lack of clean water. In the United States, water costs 2 cents per gallon on average and is readily available and inexpensive throughout the entire country in seconds or minutes primarily by tap, bottles, or wells. (U.S Environmental Protection Agency 3) Meanwhile in other countries around the world, wars have been fought over water. For example in Sudan, there was a conflict over water in the Darfur region which left 300,000 people dead and over 2.7 million people displaced all because of a desperate need for water. For the Haitian people, clean water can determine whether someone lives or dies through the next week. Water that is unclean is the main cause of illness in this impoverished country and many of those who get sick die because people cannot afford medical treatment or because it is simply not available to them. In Somalia, girls make multiple 2-3 hour walks a day to fetch water for their families, many sacrificing schooling for access to water (U.S Environmental Protection Agency 3). Water is essential for our lives and for millions of people in many countries around the world access to clean water has become a desperate search, the difference between life and death in many