Water or Education?

Water has a chokehold on those gripped by abject poverty
Over 1.1 billion people in the world are without access to safe water. About 3.4 million people die as a result of consumption of unclean water every year. Unclean water is second killer in the world for children. About 4,000 children die each day as a result of unclean consumption. The World Health Organization labeled waterborne diseases as the number one killer in the world.

The average person living in an undeveloped country uses only about 10 liters of water a day. A person in the United States will use 300 or more liters per day.

People without a good supply of clean water suffer from disease such as cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, and dysentery. People can catch these lethal diseases by drinking the impure water, eating food that was prepared by the sick individuals, or touching the infected person. These depriving health issues suck away possibilities for children to receive adequate education, and for families to provide enough essentials for the family to survive. Females are especially affected by inadequate water supplies. It is usually their jobs to retrieve water everyday instead off attending educational institutions. In most East African cities it will take an average of 21 minutes to retrieve water. In rural areas of Africa it may take hours just to receive water. This is time consuming and takes away opportunities such as educational opportunities, fetching other essential materials, and working in paid labor. Lack of good water supplies also stunts farming and industry in the area. People could help the underprivileged. People could pull these people out of the grips of poverty by providing clean drinking water for people.