Water is an essential nutrient our body depends upon for optimal health and fitness. It keeps us hydrated and assists with vital processes at every level of functioning in the human body. If you’re physically active, research has shown that water is the most important nutrient in sports nutrition. Here are some of the key reasons why you need to stay hydrated—even if you aren’t an athlete.The Health Benefits of Water1 Water Is an Essential Nutrient The human body is made up of over 60 percent water. Research continues to report positive findings on why drinking plenty of water every day is essential to good health.  Our bodies need water to maintain hydration, digestive, heart, and lung function, joint lubrication, protection of tissues, regulation of body temperature, and much more. Water can be considered our lifeline and its health benefits are endless. It keeps us feeling, functioning, and even looking our best.1https://988a6a0566be6f40e3a2d99a244869a6.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html2 Water Helps With Weight Loss Some studies suggest that increasing your water may help in the weight loss process, especially when consumed instead of other high-calorie beverages. Replacing calorie-sweetened beverages with water can result in weight loss as well by reducing overall calorie intake.2 Drinking a glass of water before a meal has shown to decrease appetite3, aid in digestion and boost metabolism.4 People often confuse thirst for hunger, which can promote weight gain. Proper hydration has been linked to better portion control and improved weight loss results.2How Water Boosts Weight Loss Nutrition experts often recommend assessing your fluid intake if you are feeling fatigued. Inadequate hydration can lead to feelings of tiredness and fatigue.5 A simple test for dehydration versus hunger has shown to help with portion control.  Drinking water throughout the day can also reduce the desire to consume sugar sodas or juices. A study on water-induced thermogenesis demonstrated that drinking cold water increases energy expenditure in the body. The increase in energy appears to be created by the body’s effort to warm the water up to body temperature.2 This theory would help explain the boost to metabolism and increased weight loss.  But keep in mind that the study had substantial limitations and this is not a magical way to lose weight. This study only included 50 girls for a short amount of time (8 weeks). More research is needed to confirm this theory.Why Drinking Cold Water Burns More Calorieshttps://988a6a0566be6f40e3a2d99a244869a6.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html3 Water Reduces Belly Bloat Holding water or feeling bloated can feel uncomfortable. It’s typically caused by poor digestion, increased sodium […]

New report on inequalities in access to water, sanitation and hygiene also reveals more than half of the world does not have access to safe sanitation services. Billions of people around the world are continuing to suffer from poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, according to a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed* drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic** handwashing facilities. The Joint Monitoring Programme report, Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2000-2017: Special focus on inequalities finds that, while significant progress has been made toward achieving universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene, there are huge gaps in the quality of services provided. “Mere access is not enough. If the water isn’t clean, isn’t safe to drink or is far away, and if toilet access is unsafe or limited, then we’re not delivering for the world’s children,” said Kelly Ann Naylor, Associate Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, UNICEF. “Children and their families in poor and rural communities are most at risk of being left behind. Governments must invest in their communities if we are going to bridge these economic and geographic divides and deliver this essential human right.” The report reveals that 1.8 billion people have gained access to basic drinking water services since 2000, but there are vast inequalities in the accessibility, availability, and quality of these services. It is estimated that 1 in 10 people (785 million) still lack basic services, including the 144 million who drink untreated surface water. The data shows that 8 in 10 people living in rural areas lacked access to these services and in one in four countries with estimates for different wealth groups, coverage of basic services among the richest was at least twice as high as among the poorest. “Countries must double their efforts on sanitation or we will not reach universal access by 2030,” said Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. “If countries fail to step up efforts on sanitation, safe water, and hygiene, we will continue to live with diseases that should have been long ago consigned to the history books: diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and neglected tropical diseases including trachoma, intestinal worms, and schistosomiasis. Investing in

1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water – UNICEF, WHORead More »

In this inspiring story of individual activism, a boy recognizes gender inequality when his sister must stop attending school — and decides to do something about it. Victor is very close to his twin sister, Linesi. But now that they have turned eight years old, she no longer goes to school with him. Instead, Linesi, like the other older girls in their community, walks to the river to get water five times a day, to give their mother more time for farming. Victor knows this is the way it has always been. But he has begun learning about equality at school, and his teacher has asked the class to consider whether boys and girls are treated equally. Though he never thought about it before, Victor realizes they’re not. And it’s not fair to his sister. So Victor comes up with a plan to help. Based on a true story of a Malawian boy, award-winning author Susan Hughes’s inspiring book celebrates how one person can make a big difference in the lives of others. It’s a perfect starting point for children to explore themes of gender inequality and unequal access to education, as well as the lack of clean water in some parts of the world. Nicole Miles’s appealing artwork in this graphic novel/picture book hybrid format adds emotional context to the story. Also included are information about education and water availability in Malawi, resources and a glossary of Chichewa words. Part of the CitizenKid collection and featuring a growth mindset, this important book has links to social studies lessons on global communities and cultures, as well as to character education lessons on initiative, fairness and adaptability. Contact us for more information.

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 a 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 »

Put up signs Post signs along the border of your source water protection area to notify people that any pollution in that area can affect the quality of local drinking water. Use and dispose of harmful materials properly Don’t dump hazardous waste on the ground. It can contaminate the soil, which could also contaminate the groundwater or nearby surface water. A number of products used at home contain hazardous or toxic substances that can contaminate ground or surface waters, such as: Motor oil Pesticides Leftover paints or paint cans Mothballs Flea collars Household cleaners A number of medicines Don’t overuse pesticides or fertilizers. Many fertilizers and pesticides contain hazardous chemicals. These can travel through the soil and contaminate groundwater. If you feel you must use these chemicals, please remember to use them in moderation. Volunteer in your community Find a watershed or wellhead protection organization or a source water collaborative in your community and volunteer to help. If there are no active groups, consider starting one. Use the Source Water Collaborative’s How to Collaborate Tool Kitto get started. Join in a beach, stream or wetland cleanup You can make new friends while you help protect source water. Prepare a presentation about your watershed for a school or civic organization Discuss water quality threats, including the dangers of polluted runoff and habitat loss. In your presentation, highlight actions people can take to protect water quality, such as limiting fertilizer use and eliminating the use of herbicides and pesticides. Organize a storm drain stenciling project Stencil a message next to the street drain. This will remind people not to dump waste into a street drain because the water drains to the river. Use simple images and words when stenciling to help make the connection, such as: Fish Lakes Streams Bays Groundwater Oceans “Protect Your Water” logo with the image of a glass and faucet You can also use stencils to produce and distribute a flyer to your neighbors. Remind residents that storm drains dump directly into their local water source.

Posted January 8th, 2019 by Kerry Dodson, Director of Events and Engagement. HEADQUARTERS OUR SUPPORTERS SAFE WATER Today, I moved through my regular routine: I rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, and took a shower. Hours later, I strolled over to the water cooler at work to fill up my water bottle. Throughout the day, I used the bathroom, washed my hands, refilled the water bottle, cooked dinner, and threw a load of laundry into the washing machine. But not once did I think about where I was going to get water, whether it would be safe to walk 25 steps to the water cooler, or whether the water itself was safe. Not once. Every day, billions of people do have to think about where they will get the day’s water and whether or not it will make them ill. Today, 2.1 billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water. That’s one-third of the world’s population. The impact of the global water crisis is both widespread and tragic. One person dies every 37 seconds from a water-related illness, and 50 percent of the hospital beds in the developing world are filled with people suffering from water-related diseases. Women are especially affected, spending 200 million hours each day collecting water for their families. And the water they work so hard to get is usually not safe to drink. The global water crisis is real. It’s urgent. But there is hope. And you can help provide that hope to people around the world by participating in Water Mission’s annual Walk for Water on Saturday, March 30, 2019, in North Charleston, SC, or by finding a regional walk near you. The three-mile, the experiential route will demonstrate what life is like for people around the world who walk for water every day. Stories, facts, and visuals will guide you through Riverfront Park to Water Mission’s international headquarters where you will see the transformative impact of safe water firsthand. When you participate in the Walk, form a team, and raise support, you are directly combating the global water crisis. Your participation brings much-needed awareness to the lack of safe water around the world. And every dollar you raise helps to transform someone’s life. It’s simple — RECRUIT: Talk to your friends, church, and co-workers about forming a Walk for Water team. REGISTER: Register yourself and your team to reserve your 2019 Walk for Water T-shirt. (Click here.) RAISE SUPPORT: Personally ask 10 people

When You Walk for Water, You Make a DifferenceRead More »

The human body can last weeks without food, but only days without water. The body is made up of 50 to 75 per cent water. Water forms the basis of blood, digestive juices, urine and perspiration, and is contained in lean muscle, fat and bones. As the body can’t store water, we need fresh supplies every day to make up for losses from the lungs, skin, urine and faeces (poo). The amount we need depends on our body size, metabolism, the weather, the food we eat and our activity levels.  Water in our bodies Some facts about our internal water supply include:  Body water content is higher in men than in women and falls in both with age. Most mature adults lose about 2.5 to 3 litres of water per day. Water loss may increase in hot weather and with prolonged exercise. Elderly people lose about two litres per day. An air traveller can lose approximately 1.5 litres of water during a three-hour flight. Water loss needs to be replaced. Importance of water Water is needed for most body functions, including to:  Maintain the health and integrity of every cell in the body. Keep the bloodstream liquid enough to flow through blood vessels. Help eliminate the by-products of the body’s metabolism, excess electrolytes (for example, sodium and potassium), and urea, which is a waste product formed through the processing of dietary protein. Regulate body temperature through sweating. Moisten mucous membranes such as those of the lungs and mouth. Lubricate and cushion joints. Reduce the risk of cystitis by keeping the bladder clear of bacteria. Aid digestion and prevent constipation Moisturise the skin to maintain its texture and appearance. Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells. Serve as a shock absorber inside the eyes, spinal cord and in the amniotic sac surrounding the foetus in pregnancy. Water in our food Most foods, even those that look hard and dry, contain water. The body can get about 20 per cent of its total water requirements from solid foods alone.  The process of digesting foods also produces a small amount of water as a by-product which can be used by the body. Water sourced this way can provide around 10 per cent of the body’s water requirements. The remaining 70 per cent or so of water required by the body must come from fluids (liquids).  Recommended dietary fluid intake The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend

Water – a vital nutrientRead More »

The benefits of having access to an improved drinking water source can only be fully realized when there is also access to improved sanitation and adherence to good hygiene practices. Beyond the immediate, obvious advantages of people being hydrated and healthier, access to water, sanitation and hygiene – known collectively as WASH – has profound wider socio-economic impacts, particularly for women and girls. The fact that WASH is the subject of dedicated targets within the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) is testament to its fundamental role in public health and therefore in the future of sustainable development. Indeed, access to safe water and sanitation are human rights, as recognized in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. For universal fulfilment of these rights to become reality, we will need the right systems: well-resourced, capable institutions delivering services and changing behaviour in resilient and appropriate ways. Current situation Today, 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services and 3.6 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services. Unsafe hygiene practices are widespread, compounding the effects on people’s health. The impact on child mortality rates is devastating with more than 297 000 children under five who die annually from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water. Water A person without access to improved drinking water – for example from a protected borehole well or municipal piped supply for instance – is forced to rely on sources such as surface water, unprotected and possibly contaminated wells, or vendors selling water of unverifiable provenance and quality. For many communities, water sources are usually far from their homes, and it typically falls to women and girls to spend much of their time and energy fetching water, a task which often exposes them to attack from men and even wild animals. Sanitation Without improved sanitation – a facility that safely separates human waste from human contact – people have no choice but to use inadequate communal latrines or to practise open defecation. For women and girls, finding a place to go to the toilet outside, often having to wait until the cover of darkness, can leave them vulnerable to abuse and sexual assault. In the immediate environment, exposed faecal matter will be transferred back into people’s food and water resources, helping to spread serious diseases such as cholera. Beyond the community, the lack of effective waste disposal or sewerage

Water, Sanitation and HygieneRead More »

Willows residents Edwin Salazar, 11, Luis Gonzalez, 12, and Emily Vasquez, 12, carry buckets of water during the Walk 4 Water on March 25, 2017, in Bidwell Park in Chico. – Dan Reidel — Enterprise-RecordBy HEATHER HACKING and THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | ColumnistPUBLISHED: March 25, 2017 at 9:18 p.m. | UPDATED: April 20, 2018 at 5:04 a.m. Chico >> Hundreds of people put one foot in front of the other Saturday to bring the gift of water to dry places across the globe. The event was Walk 4 Water, put on by the local group Bridging the Gap by Giving. Now in its ninth year, money raised through the event in Bidwell Park will help provide wells in underdeveloped countries, as well as education on how to keep the water clean for daily use. On a day when the sidewalk was wet in the morning from rain the night before, it’s easy to take water for granted. However, many people must walk for hours a day to provide water for their families in places including Africa. When a well is installed in a village, lives change. Bridging the Gap partners with other groups working for the same cause. Monica Hubert, of World Vision, was in Chico Saturday to see the local walkers in action. Soon she’ll head off to Malawi to work on a new water system. Sean Martin works for Lifewater, a group that helps install wells and provides training to people in extremely poor areas throughout the world. When water isn’t available, sanitation is a huge problem, including the use of the outdoors instead of centralized latrines, Martin explained. Part of the work by his group, which is helped through the local fundraising, is to train people about safe water use. One project is in Kaliro, Uganda, where door-to-door training will be provided. Without water available, people in isolated villages do not have a culture of safe water handling, he explained. Sometimes the fix is as simple as showing people how to use plastic containers to store water. In a video produced by the group, a child constructs a frame where a water bottle is attached by rope for a hand-washing station, Lack of water is a massive problem, Martin explained, but much progress is being made, one project at a time. Event participants Randy and Cindy Riggs said they joined the walk after hearing a talk by Bridging the Gap founder Shirley Adams. “She put it on

Walk 4 Water event helps change lives across the globeRead More »

The most beautiful of constellations, Orion, hangs low over the village in central Malawi. The stars around it are as uncountable as the grains of sand bordering Lake Malawi, 60 miles away. Far below Orion’s shimmer, a rooster crows — an alarm clock with feathers, strutting through the darkness past a row of huts where adults and children yearn for a few more hours of rest. Eight-year-old Ireen is fast asleep in her grandmother’s one-room hut. Next door in her mother’s house, her sister, Jekina, 4, stirs as the rooster continues the hullabaloo, no snooze button to silence him. The girls’ mother, Happiness — Chimwemwe in her native tongue of Chichewa — wakes in the dark to make her first walk of the day to collect water under the night sky. She ties her 1-month-old baby, Secret, securely to her back with a colorful piece of cloth, then walks with her twin sister, Gift, in single file from their huts to a stream where as many as a thousand people will collect water and wash clothes from morning until night. Although it is dark, the 26-year-olds don’t need a flashlight. They know this path. They have been walking its treacherous terrain since they were 4. Their family lives in the Great Rift Valley, the geological marvel that stretches nearly 4,000 miles from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in the Middle East to Mozambique in southeastern Africa. The valley, actually a series of adjoining trenches, is the result of a rift: a fracture in the earth that continues to tear open the crust, causing chunks of earth to sink and molten rock to rise in the form of volcanic eruptions. The stream where the family collects water is within the Great Rift. The hills are rocky, the valleys slippery, and the changes in elevation make for a grueling and potentially dangerous climb — especially carrying a heavy bucket of water on your head in temperatures swelling over 90 degrees, your neck and calves aching, sweat trickling into your eyes and momentarily blinding you. The stars above the path are dizzyingly spectacular, but their magnificence is lost on Happiness. The single mother worries about her house — at only 12 feet across, it’s too small for all four of her children. She worries about leaving Jekina alone every morning — what if someone tries to abduct her? She worries about feeding her son, Beauty, who is staying with his father,

Walking for water determines Ireen’s future in MalawiRead More »