Average Jane on World Water Day

I received this information from Yvonne DiVita earlier this week and wanted to pass it along:

WaterPartners International is a non-profit
organization dedicated to helping fight unsafe and inadequate water supplies. Today, March 22, 2006, is World Water Day, which seeks to call attention to the global water crisis
which is the leading cause of death and disease in the world, taking the lives of more
than 14,000 people each day, 11,000 of whom are children under age 5.

Did you know that the
average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6
kilometers? Women and girls spend more than 200
million hours every day walking to collect water
from distant, often polluted sources—time that could be better spent on more
productive endeavors such as work and school.

Most people
are not aware of this crisis. WaterPartners hopes to bring more
attention to the world’s leading cause of sickness and death in women and children. We know that the only
way we will come closer to providing a solution to this problem is by making
more people aware of it. Our experience tells us that once people are aware of
the magnitude of this problem, they want to help solve it.

If you have a moment today, please check out the site and see how you can help.