What do you, the trees, and a hamster have in common? Give up? You all need water. All living things must have water to survive, whether they get it from a water fountain, a rain cloud, or a little bottle attached to the side of a hamster cage. Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight, and a person can’t survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, your blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of your body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and your body would stop working. Water is also in lymph (say: limp), a fluid that is part of your immune system, which helps you fight off illness. Water helps keep your temperature normal. You need water to digest your food and get rid of waste. Water is needed for digestive juices, urine (pee), and poop. And you can bet that water is the main ingredient in perspiration, also called sweat. Besides being an important part of the fluids in your body, water is needed by each cell to work. Your body doesn’t get water only from drinking water. Any fluid you drink will contain water, but water and milk are the best choices. Lots of foods contain water too. Fruit contains quite a bit of water, which you could probably tell if you’ve ever bitten into a peach or plum and felt the juices dripping down your chin. Vegetables also contain a lot of water — think of slicing into a fat tomato or crunching into a crisp stalk of celery. How Much Is Enough? Because water is so important, you might wonder if you’re drinking enough. There is no magic amount of water that kids need to drink every day. The amount kids need depends on their age, body size, health, and activity level, plus the weather (temperature and humidity levels). Usually, kids drink something with meals and should definitely drink when they’re thirsty. But if you’re sick, or it’s warm out or you’re exercising, you’ll need more. Be sure to drink some extra water when you’re out in warm weather, especially while playing sports or exercising. When you drink is also important. If you’re going to sports practice, a game, or […]
Author: Camila Welch
Why Should I Drink Water at All? Staying hydrated is essential to keeping your body healthy and satisfied. For starters, our body is made up of 70% water so it is a no brainer that we need to provide our body with more and more water! There are many health problems, both long and short term, that can come about from dehydration. These include: migraines, dyspepsia, hypertension, kidney stones, breast cancer, uterine cancer, sinusitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, and obesity. In fact, the Japanese population is known to be one of the slimmest cultures and they drink water immediately after waking up! So, How Can I Avoid Long Term Water Dehydration Effects? Morning: • You should drink at least 650 mL (3 cups) of water right after waking up. Build up your tolerance to drinking this much water day by day! • Avoid snacking or having breakfast for at least 45 mins after consumption. Throughout the Day: • Always drink water 30 mins before eating a meal • Try to avoid drinking water two hours after a meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) When Will I See Results? • If you are a patient with Diabetes or high blood pressure patients: allow 30 days • If you suffers of constipation and Gastritis: allow 10 days • If you are a TB patient: allow 90 days. But, Really. Why Should I Drink Water? Well, here are 7 reasons how drinking water immediately after waking up improves your life. 1. Increases Skin Radiance for a Flawless Complexion • By drinking water, your body is able to release toxins faster, which will therefore give your skin that glow and radiance you may buy products for. • In fact, 500 mL of water has proven to increase blood flow and make your skin glow while increasing production of new blood cells. • The shortage of water in your body can also cause premature wrinkles and deeper pores. 2. Helps Weight Loss • Besides being less hungry and decreasing cravings, by drinking water immediately after waking up, your body is releasing toxins, which begin a movement in your bowels. This process will recover and improve your digestive system. 3. Improve Metabolism • If you are dieting, you know that just by drinking water on an empty stomach, you can increase your metabolic rater by 24%! By increasing your metabolic rate, you are digesting faster and therefore improving your
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UK children help others Imagine having to walk a treacherous 6km every day just to get water to survive. That’s the situation for thousands of people, especially women and children, in the developing world. Children in a Buckinghamshire school did more than imagine: they actually walked 6k in school – and raised money to help. School children raised over £5,000 Pupils at High Ash CE School, Great Brickhill, near Milton Keynes, walked 30 laps of the school field, raising £5,480 through the sponsored event, along with a cake sale, in June. Headteacher Sara Boyce says: “Our school vision is to challenge inequality in the world as the Good Samaritan did. In taking part in this event, we have been raising awareness about the rights for all children to have access to clean water and education. It’s been a real eye-opener to the children to cover 6km, to understand how far youngsters their age in poorer countries walk each day just to get water. They also experienced how heavy that water is to carry.” The High Ash children took part in the walk in the safety of their school grounds. In the developing world, the journey is often dangerous and there is no adult supervision. Youngsters as young as four are forced to get up early and carry buckets of water so heavy they rub the hair off their heads. If they get home in time for school, they are often too exhausted to concentrate in class. TAKE PART: GLOBAL 6K WALK FOR WATER “Big impact” So, what did the High Ash children think of the challenge? Angelina said: “It was really tiring but at the end I felt really joyful, it was like a marathon but I knew it would help other children around the world get clean water so that is what kept me going.” Phoebe said: “I ran the 6K knowing that I was giving poorer children access to water. Every step was helping that little bit more, it was a small step for me but could have had a big impact on their life.” Finley said: “I felt good about myself because every step that I took I knew I would be helping someone that doesn’t have the luxury we have of access to clean water nearby.”This isn’t a walk for water, it’s more like a walk for the futures of children.” – Lorelei, pupil Walk your own Global 6K
Every day, women and girls spend 200 million hours walking to collect water for their families. That’s 8.3 million days. More than 22,800 years. It’s hard to get your head around numbers that large, so start instead with 6K. The “K” stands for kilometer. 6K, a little more than 3.7 miles, is the average distance round trip women and children in the developing world walk for water — water that is often contaminated with life-threatening diseases. How far is 6K? 15 laps around a football field Twice the length of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. — from the Lincoln Memorial to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and back again Five times the number of steps to climb the Empire State Building You could do that, right? (Well, maybe not the climbing part; that would be hard.) You could probably walk 6K in an hour and 15 minutes. At a brisk walk, you could shave off the 15 minutes. On a flat, smooth sidewalk, most people can walk a mile in 17 to 20 minutes. If you’re a runner, you could cover the distance in half that time. Easy peasy. Walking for water in Africa But that’s not how it’s done in sub-Saharan Africa. There, people don’t have access to an improved water source. Moms and daughters walk their 6K barefoot or in rubber sandals to collect water from polluted rivers and ponds. More than 3 million children and nearly 14 million women walk more than 30 minutes to collect water. And they often make that trip more than once a day! Maybe they climb up steep hills or over rocks, slide down a steep gully, or circle around thorn trees. There may be snakes and bees or people who want to rob them — or worse — lying in wait along the way. On the way home from the water source, it’s even harder. You know what it’s like to carry a gallon of milk from the car to the kitchen counter? Try a gallon in each hand at 8.6 pounds each, and the total weight is less than half the 44 pounds an African woman carries on her head in a 20-liter jerrycan. You see, carrying water is not just difficult, it’s a lifelong pain in the neck or back that sometimes causes serious health problems. But would that 20-liter jerrycan be enough water for your family to drink, cook, bathe, and wash for a
A walk for children, by children Planning Guide A Marathon Walk in 110+ degree heat During 9 months of the year, in stifling 110+ degree temperatures, the children of the Azawak make a marathon hike for water, inspired not by an athletic goal, but by a desperate need. They travel as many as 30 miles in a day, in oppressive heat, with little to eat. They know that if they don’t return soon with water, one of their family members might die. Walk to Change Lives To bring awareness to the challenges these children face, and to raise money to improve their lives, schools, students, and community organizations are invited to conduct “A Walk for Water”. Students ask friends, family, and local businesses to sponsor them for each mile they walk. Heroes of Compassion A Walk for Water embodies the mission of our Wells of Love program, which is to empower students as “Heroes of Compassion”. These future leaders come together with a philanthropic spirit to make a positive impact. Each stage of planning and engagement brings meaningful experiences that build a foundation for leadership and socially-conscious action. Steps for Organizing A Walk for Water Pick a date and tell us about your event (send an email to info@ammanimman.org) Holding a community event in the fall, when school begins, is a great way to bring everyone together. World Water Day in March or Earth Day in April also provide occasions where an event focusing on the scarcity of water can be highlighted. We encourage your school to hold A Walk For Water at around the same time each year in order to raise a loud and consistent voice for the children of the Azawak.Option: Do you want online registration for your event? Become our partner and Fill out this form. Check out the Montessori School of Mclean’s annual Walk for Water event. Choose a venueThe walk can take place on a wooded trail, around a track, along a city bike path, in a local park, around your local neighborhood or on school grounds.Tip: Plan ahead. Set up an organizing committee. You may need to provide portable toilets, apply for a permit, or pay a fee. Invite your communityA Walk For Water can be held as a school function just for students during the school day, or organized as a weekend family event. Schools are encouraged join together with other schools to create an even bigger event that will give students
NEW YORK/STOCKHOLM, 29 August 2016 – UNICEF said the 200 million hours women and girls spend every day collecting water is a colossal waste of their valuable time. As World Water Week gets underway in Stockholm and experts gather to try to improve the world’s access to water, the UN children’s agency stressed that the opportunity cost of lack of access to water disproportionately falls on women. “Just imagine: 200 million hours is 8.3 million days, or over 22,800 years,” said UNICEF’s global head of water, sanitation and hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera. “It would be as if a woman started with her empty bucket in the Stone Age and didn’t arrive home with water until 2016. Think how much the world has advanced in that time. Think how much women could have achieved in that time.” “When water is not on premises and needs to be collected, it’s our women and girls who are mostly paying with their time and lost opportunities,” he added. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal for water and sanitation, Goal 6, calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030. The first step is providing everyone with a basic service within a 30-minute round trip, and the long term goal is to ensure everyone has safe water available at home. However, UN estimates are that in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, for 29 per cent of the population (37 per cent in rural areas and 14 per cent in urban areas), improved drinking water sources are 30 minutes or more away. In sub-Saharan Africa, one roundtrip to collect water is 33 minutes on average in rural areas and 25 minutes in urban areas. In Asia, the numbers are 21 minutes and 19 minutes respectively. However for particular countries the figures may be higher. A single trip takes longer than an hour in Mauritania, Somalia, Tunisia and Yemen. When water is not piped to the home the burden of fetching it falls disproportionately on women and children, especially girls. A study of 24 sub-Saharan countries revealed that when the collection time is more than 30 minutes, an estimated 3.36 million children and 13.54 million adult females were responsible for water collection. In Malawi, the UN estimates that women who collected water spent 54 minutes on average, while men spent only 6 minutes. In Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania average collection times for women were 20
UNICEF: Collecting water is often a colossal waste of time for women and girlsRead More »
Like the air we breathe, water is essential in our lives. But for at least 2.1 billion people, clean water is still out of reach. Did you know that disease from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kills more people each year than all forms of violence, including war? Did you know that one in four primary schools have no drinking water service, with students using unprotected sources or going thirsty? What about the fact that women and girls are responsible for water collection in eight out of ten households with water off-premises? The truth is access to clean water is deeply linked to poverty. And that’s why the theme of this year’s World Water Day is ‘Leave no one behind,’—building off the central promise of Sustainable Development Goal 6 to ensure the availability of water to all by 2030. According to the UN, the most marginalized people are often overlooked or face discrimination when trying to access water: women, children, refugees, indigenous people, and people with disabilities. At Oxfam, water is central to almost every aspect of our work—our humanitarian responses, our campaigns, and our long-term initiatives to help families improve their incomes, reduce their vulnerability to disasters, and defend their rights. This World Water Day we challenged people on the streets of Boston to see how far they could carry 5 gallons of water. On average, women and children in developing countries walk 3.7 miles and carry 5 gallons everyday day to bring clean water home to their families. How far do you walk for water? In Yemen, more than 2,500 people—many under the age of 5—have died from cholera as the result of poor access to clean water. Since war began in the region, Oxfam has provided humanitarian aid to more than three million people, including repairing water systems and trucking in water to help displaced people and other at-risk communities. In Syria, we have provided clean water to 2 million people and are working on solid waste management. We are providing around 185,000 gallons of chlorinated water daily in the Teknaf area, Bangladesh, as part of our response to the Rohingya crisis. And in the Democratic Republic of the Congo we have started the construction of a pipeline that will provide safe water to more than 80,000 people. For Oxfam, tackling the root causes of poverty often means addressing these water-related injustices. Water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate
World Water Day: How far would you walk for water?Read More »
In sub-Saharan Africa, 319 million people worry about where and how they’ll get enough water. Without access to an improved water source, their days revolve around a walk for water: gathering enough to cook, clean, bathe — and of course, drink. The task of collecting water falls mainly to women and children, especially girls, who carry water an average of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) a day. Some walk much farther, while others — especially those living in a community where World Vision has sponsorship programs — walk far less. Meet two of them: Cheru and Kamama. Both 5-year-olds live in rural Kenya, and like millions of African children, they help their mothers carry water every day. Though they live just 16 miles apart, for one, getting water is a three-hour struggle; for the other, it’s a seven-minute stroll. Walk with them. Cheru walks for dirty water Age: 5 Location: West Pokot County, Kenya Distance to water: 6.88 kilometers, or 4.27 miles, round trip Time spent on each trip: 3 hours, 32 minutes Cheru drinks the last of her warm milk tea — her usual breakfast — and hands the tin cup to her mother, Monica, to wash. Her older sister, Dina, waits for her, jerrycan in hand. Cheru stands on tiptoe to pull down the tea kettle hanging on the side of a woven wood stand where clean dishes dry in the sun. The girls hurry to join other children with jerrycans large and small, and the group sets out walking on an hours-long journey to get the water their families’ lives depend on. The sun climbs higher and hotter in the clear sky as if to melt the sand and rocks of the dry Kesot River bed. Slowing their pace, the children, ranging in age from 5 to 12, skirt the bluffs and linger in the shade of trees. Sweat beading on her forehead, Cheru falls behind. She stops, swaps the kettle to her other hand, and plunges ahead to catch up at the next resting place. The youngest of the group, Cheru follows the older children and tries to do what they do. At the waterhole Cheru’s battered aluminum tea kettle holds enough water for her morning tea, but little more. When she digs in the sandy riverbed with the lid and scoops enough water to fill her kettle, it’s not enough to cook a meal or wash dishes. Even
Water within reach: Compare two 5-year-olds’ walk for waterRead More »
What is water and where did it come from? You’ve probably heard of atoms, the tiniest building blocks of all matter in the Universe. We are all made of atoms stuck together (or, as scientists would say, “bonded”). Atoms bonded together to form molecules. A molecule of pure water is made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. As explained in a previous Curious Kids article, scientists think the water on Earth may have come from the melting of water-rich minerals during the formation of the planet and icy comets that, billions of years ago, smashed into Earth and melted. Why can’t we just make more? While making small volumes of pure water in a lab is possible, it’s not practical to “make” large volumes of water by mixing hydrogen and oxygen together. The reaction is expensive, releases lots of energy, and can cause really massive explosions. While the total volume of water on Earth stays about the same, water continually changes location and state. That means sometimes it is a liquid (like the water we drink), a solid (ice) or a gas (water vapour such as steam). Scientists call this process of change the hydrologic (water) cycle, which is where water constantly moves around the world by cycling between the air, the ground and the ocean. Round and round The cycle begins when water is evaporated from the ocean (or lakes, rivers and wetlands) and enters the atmosphere (the air all around us) as water vapour (gas). As warm, water-rich air rises, it cools down and can hold less water. As a result, clouds form. Eventually, the water vapour changes back to liquid water and falls to Earth as rain. Rain that’s not immediately evaporated back into the atmosphere either flows into the ocean as runoff or is absorbed into the earth and becomes groundwater – water stored underground in the tiny spaces within rocks. Plants can suck up groundwater with their roots, and push water out through tiny holes in their leaves (this is called transpiration). Groundwater flows slowly through the earth to the ocean and the cycle begins again. The hydrologic cycle is sensitive to changes in temperature and pressure. For example, if it is hot and windy, more evaporation occurs. Therefore, climate change impacts the hydrologic cycle. Regions that were once wet can become dry (and vice-versa) because clouds drop their rain into the ocean instead of upon
Access to clean water changes life for women and girls around the world. Resilient. Entrepreneurial. Creative. Those are just a few of the words we could use to describe the incredible women we’ve met over the years. These are women who raise families, start businesses, and perfect their crafts. Women who are capable of so much—especially when they’re relieved of their 40-pound (about 20 kilos) Jerry Cans and their long, dangerous walks for water. But the reality is, women and girls are disproportionately responsible for collecting water in nearly every developing region. As we spend this month celebrating and observing International Women’s Day and World Water Day, we want to share that reality with you. Because while water is a human issue, it’s first and foremost, a women’s issue. For women, collecting water steals time We’ve met young girls who walk in the 115ºF (46ºC) heat of the Sahel Desert to collect water from 1,000-year-old holes. We’ve met women in Ethiopia who walk to the river before sunrise and don’t get back until after lunch. We’ve even met mothers in Mali who sometimes sleep next to an open water source so they can be first in line when the water refills the next morning. That time adds up. Worldwide, women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours every single day collecting water.2 This burden robs women and girls of time to learn, time to be a kid, time to earn an income, time to rest, and time spent with family. For hundreds of millions of people, being born female means life revolves around water collection. Everything else comes second. For women, collecting water limits opportunities When we met 8-year-old Rita in Nepal, she was crouched down at the front of a long line, scooping water from a rocky basin into her metal water container. It was just after 6 a.m., and Rita and her mother had been waiting in line to collect water for their family of nine since 3 a.m. This isn’t an uncommon experience for young girls living in rural, mountainous parts of Nepal. Every day, they can spend hours waiting in line for the nearby source to refill or trek miles down the mountain to another dirty water source far below. But this situation isn’t unique to Nepal. For girls all over the world, not having access to clean water means a life filled with more responsibility than