Global Water Crisis: Water Serves So Many

by Mom It Forward on March 28th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

This week's Season of Service challenge involves serving water, whether by providing means for purification of it or reducing your use of it. This is inspired by sponsor Aveda's annual efforts during the month of April to raise funds and awareness of the desperate need for clean water felt by many people in developing countries. As noted in our giveaway post this week, in these countries, 70 percent of industrial waste and 80 percent of all waste is dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply. In these countries, women and children spend hours a day collecting water from the often distant and polluted sources.

One person out of seven lacks access to clean water and thousands of people are dying on a daily basis due to the inability to access clean water. Often, they are consuming polluted water which leads to disease, debilitation or even death. Aveda’s 2011 Earth Month, now in its 12^th year, is aimed at raising funds and awareness for clean water. Here are some bite-size ways you can support their efforts, as well as ways to reduce your own water use at home.

10 Tips to Purify Water

Buy an Aveda Light the Way™ soy wax candle, featuring a stress-relieving aroma with certified organic French lavender. It's sold only during Earth Month, April, here. One hundred percent of the purchase price ($12) of this candle supports Global Greengrants Funds water-related projects.
Find and participate in an Aveda Walk for Water the week of April 22nd. These walks, held around the world, are all six kilometers—the average distance that women in developing countries walk to collect water each day.
Ask your Aveda stylist if they're participating in Appointments for the Earth, which lets Aveda salon, spa and Institute clients experience services with a portion of monies being directed to local not-for-profit organizations with water-focused missions.
Donate your status on Facebook or Twitter to Water.org, in the name of clean water. A status or tweet with a fact or success story will automatically post to your account each day until Friday.
Watch one of these three YouTube videos, made by bloggers Hank Green, Lisa Nova, Timothy DelaGhetto, who recently visited water-stricken Haiti.
Donate $15, through Groupon, to help Water.org provide safe drinking water to people in the developing world, and an anonymous donor will supplement each pledge with a $10 donation up to $20,00.
Go to the Levi's Watertank page on Facebook and complete simple challenges and take small actions to change their everyday water use. In return, Levi’s® is supporting Water.org programs that will deliver more than 200 million liters of clean drinking water to communities in need.
Use a few ice cubes instead of a long stream of running water, when "shocking" or cooling your pasta, to reduce your water usage.
Visit WaterAid America's website to educate yourself on global water and sanitation issues.
Buy organic beans for any recipe calling for canned beans and simply drain them instead of rinsing them.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

What other ideas do you have for giving to others involving water?
How has serving made a meaningful difference for you this week?
How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week's challenge.
Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week's challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
Enter to win each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Aveda by clicking here.
Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.