Access to clean drinking water is not only a necessity for good health, but it is also a fundamental human right.
Water is refreshing, hydrating, and invaluable to your survival, but potable water remains a precious and often scarce commodity in many regions. Approximately 800 million people across the globe do not have access to clean drinking water, and many more do not have hygienic sanitation.
Many individuals, especially in developing countries have to walk many kilometres to fetch water to drink and for personal use. In most countries it is left to the females to do this, and the dangers and hours that this chore takes is detrimental to their economic futures.
Water is everywhere; it covers 70% of the earth’s surface, cycling from the oceans and rivers to the clouds and back again. Water also makes up around 70% of our body-weight. The problem though is that only roughly 2, 5% of it is freshwater. Freshwater can be found in lakes, rivers, dams, artesian wells and in other underground sources.
The one truth is that there is the same amount of water on earth as there has always been, so why is there a water shortage? Fresh water is essential for life but there are currently global water shortages due to climate change, a burgeoning population, an increase in the need for water for agricultural and industrial needs, pollution and pure wastage.
What is the origin of earth’s water? According to a recent study of ancient meteorites, scientists believe that water was here from the time of our planet’s birth. Scientists had previously suspected that our planet formed dry, with high-energy impacts creating a molten surface on the infant Earth.
The latest study looked at carbonaceous chondrite meteorites that have been dated as the oldest ones known, as well as meteorites that are thought to have originated from the large asteroid Vesta, which formed in the same region as Earth, some 14 million years after the solar system’s birth. While the authors of the study are not ruling out that some of the water on earth came later, their findings suggest that there was already sufficient water on earth for life to have begun earlier than thought.
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