Water: A Life Hack We Should All Get Behind.
Why the water crisis is one of the more “hackable” global issues. In other words: We can fix this!
For many years…no seriously, like MANY years…I heard about the global water crisis. And I’ll be the first to admit, it was in one ear, out the other. There are so many problems in the world that we hear about. AIDS, Malaria, Zika Virus…it is hard to know where to even start to focus.
So why water?
Let’s start by answering the most basic of questions: What is the Water Crisis?
The Water Crisis consists of two parts: Not having access to enough water, and/or the water that you do have access to, being (theoretically) too dirty to drink.
Let’s define dirty.
This one time a̶t̶ ̶b̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶p̶ I was swimming in one of Seattle’s most beautiful places; Lake Washington. There was a lot of algae that year, and I accidentally opened my mouth when I jumped in. It tasted horrible! As I emerged, I spit it out and literally started to dry heave.
There are 2 takeaways from that story:
- As a kid, I was a huge wuss.
- I had no clue what real dirty water looked, smelled, or tasted like.
The word “dirty” does not even do it justice. “Filthy” is a little more accurate. “Disgusting” is at least in the ballpark. We’re talking about water that likely has more than just trace amounts of human feces, animal feces, and pollutants. Lets check our manners at the door…this is literally “shit water”. Think about having to close your eyes and gulp it down. Making yourself chug gatorade after a hangover doesn’t sound so bad now does it?
I just drank dirty water. What happens next?
Welp, what are your feelings on chronic diarrhea & dehydration?
I for one have had some of my most intimate conversations with God when I have had food poisoning. I don’t even know how many promises I have made to go to church every single Sunday if it will just stop…I’m positive that I owe on the deal.
Stomach problems suck. But when you or I eat a bad oyster, odds are we’re going to pass it, and go on with our lives. But what if you had to eat that quote unquote “bad oyster” every single day to stay alive?
Here is why WATER of all things, should be important if you consider yourself a “Life Hacker”.
The Buckets community prides itself on thinking a little “different”. A little “outside the box”. We try to find efficiencies where other people might miss them. Some people “hack” cars to make them go faster. Some people “hack” diets to make you lose weight quicker. Athletes “hack” workouts to make their bodies perform at a higher level.
We hack our lives to get the best result, from the least amount of effort. To make the biggest impact, for the smallest amount of work. To have the greatest possible level of efficiency.
Solving the world’s water crisis, is what you might call: A Humanity Hack.
At the beginning of this essay, I listed off just a few of the very worthy causes that deserve our attention. There is one common thread: they all require medicine to treat.
How do you usually take medicine? With water.
When you get diarrhea, what does everyone tell you to do? Drink water.
When you get sick, what did your mother tell you? Be sure to drink plenty of fluids.
Notice a pattern? In the case of millions of people, the very water needed, is the very water making them sick. The dirty water is the sleeping giant behind much of the sickness, anguish, and death.
Soooooo….what if we could fix the water?
Here comes the “hack”…
A lot of times clean water is less than 200 feet away. Not North. Not South. Not East. Not West. Down…200 feet down. The water that is so desperately needed, is often right beneath their feet. That is both the coolest thing, and the saddest thing possible that I can imagine, all wrapped up into one.
Guess how much it costs to provide access to that water when you break it down for one person?
$30.
That’s not $30/year. That’s $30 period. That’s it! 30 bucks.
There are roughly 663 million people globally that can’t get access to clean water (there were over 1 billion just 10 years ago though). If everyone in the US, woke up tomorrow and made it a point to set aside 17 cents/day this year, this problem would end. Throw in our friends from Canada, Australia, and Western Europe and we’d be talking about less than a dime.
And here’s one last reason as to why this is a serious Humanity Hack: Every single dollar that is invested into clean water access provides about $4 in economic return. That $4 equates to kids that get to grow up, get educated, and hack their own lives to become something great. A doctor, a nurse, a programmer?
Show me a better return on investment for $30.
Let’s talk about what we can do to make a dent.
We have teamed up with what I believe to be one of the best clean water organizations in the world, Charity:water, to raise money and spread awareness for this important (and very fixable) issue. I personally give my own money to them, and they in their own way kind of hacked the system of charities, by creating a model to have 100% of your donation (including credit card fees) reach the ground (literally).
I hope this has compelled some of you to consider this as a cause to get behind. Even if you can only afford a few bucks a month, as we’ve seen in the math, that’s exactly what we need.
To learn about giving to this campaign, please go to www.humanityhacks.org
PS — This Friday, June 24th is my birthday. I turn 32. And I’ve asked everyone I know to please give $32 to this cause. So if for no other reason, please for my birthday…please give. The link above will be pointed at my birthday fundraising campaign through the end of June.
If you really can’t give, of course I understand. But one thing that you can do that is equally helpful is sharing this article.
Thank you for your time. LET’S DO IT!
Again, that’s www.humanityhacks.org to learn how you can give.
Editor’s Note: I’m editing my own piece, so this is coming from me. I just wanted to point out that I purposely did not get into all of the ill-effects that the water crisis has on people. As result, this piece is very much an over simplification of things. We’ve all had food poisoning or the stomach flu at one time or another, so it is the one thing that we can all relate to. It is hard for us to imagine what it feels like to be someone who walks 4 hours each way to water everyday (with 40lbs on our back). It’s difficult for us to grasp how needing to spend all your time traveling to/from water basically steals away a lifetime from someone. We don’t know what it feels like to literally die of dehydration or watch a child die. There is a lot more to this story than I could tell today.
Additionally, I expect some of you to wonder about the $30 number. Is that to provide clean water just for now? Or is that forever? I don’t think there is ever 100% certainty on that. But here is what I can tell you. Google has provided Charity:water with a 5 million dollar grant for the installation of remote censors on developed water sources. These devices report the real-time status of completed water projects, and can detect if any problems start to occur. The majority of new projects are having these installed, and they are working diligently to get them into legacy projects as well. So in theory, that $30 number literally could represent a lifetime supply of water for someone. Pretty amazing.
