As someone that always drinks the glass of a water at a restaurant, constantly refilling a recyclable water bottle, and is accustomed to drinking fountains in most buildings, I tend to take water for granted. After all, water is a utility, often cheaper than electricity or natural gas. Unfortunately, for many parts of the world, access to fresh water is a rarity. As this National Geographic article, The Burden of Thirst, so eloquently points out:

In wealthy parts of the world, people turn on a faucet and out pours abundant, clean water. Yet nearly 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion people have no safe way to dispose of human waste—many defecate in open fields or near the same rivers they drink from.

As a response, the United Nations established March 22 as World Water Day. The idea of water having its own day of recognition might seem a bit ludicrous at first, until I started to consider how important fresh water is to life. Not only is water a vital substance to the human body, it’s very presence is responsible for the entire food chain (both plant and animal).

I asked myself how World Water Day could be any different than other ecological non-holiday observance. I don’t recall the last time I participated in any activities regarding Arbor Day, or the catch-all Earth Day. As I am accustomed to playing a devil’s advocate against popular causes, I find myself strangely drawn to a day to which even the most liberal, organic, tree-hugging planet saver has not heard of. If being “green” is the socially responsible thing to do, I had to find out what it meant to be “blue” as well.

I surrendered to the cause and decided to look into what World Water Day actually is. I discovered this year’s campaign website, worldwaterday2010.info, and read through several of the pages and a few of the documents. Some interesting facts that I learned included:

• People need 20-40 liters of water per day (50 liters if you include bathing and kitchen use)
• 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean water, compared to the global population of 6.7 billion
• There is no binding water safety agreements among nations in the UN or otherwise

Mixed in the site are many photos of struggling people in shanty towns and disgusting waterways. I’m no stranger to late-night television pleas to help save children in Africa, but World Water Day puts it all into perspective. The site also has a full listing of the World Water Day events going on around the globe.

Reading this information gave me a sense of powerlessness. To ease my mind, I researched a few sites dedicated strictly to water conservation. A few of my favorites include Water Use It Wisely, WaterSense, and Water Conserve. Some tips I found for conserving water include:

1. Fix leaky pipes and faucets.
2. Save water from other uses (cleaning, boiling) and use it to water plants.
3. Take showers instead of baths. Take shorter showers (5 minutes).
4. Don’t let the water run while brushing you teeth.
5. Turn the garden hose tightly in the off position.
6. Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more. It saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.
7. Don’t defrost frozen foods with running water. Either plan ahead by placing frozen items in the refrigerator overnight or defrost them in the microwave.
8. Water your lawn and garden in the morning or evening when temperatures are cooler to minimize evaporation.
9. Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This beats the wasteful habit of running tap water to cool it for drinking.
10. Dispose of hazardous materials properly! One quart of oil can contaminate 250,000 gallons of water, effectively eliminating that much water from our water supply. Contact your city officials for locations to dispose of hazardous materials.

In the end, I am not sure if I fully understand the need for one specific day for water awareness, but I suppose the publicity  and awareness are small steps to resolving a big problem. Water conservation is rarely touted in the media (at least much less than hunger). Water is essential to life and should be considered a right to living.

For more information on World Water Day or to find out the various ways you can help in your community, visit the UN Water Day website or read National Geographic’s Water: Our Thirsty World, set to hit news stands on at the end of the month.

Photos: J.C. Rojas, Pink Sherbert Photography, and UN Water.

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I was reading Scholars & Rogues and was impressed with the innovation in pizza boxes. ECO Incorporated seems to be pretty ambitious in their attempt to change the way people get their pizza. Converting the bottom of the box into a take-home storage container is brilliant. How many times you been left with 1-2 extra slices after everyone is full? I’m interested to see if this concept makes it to market.

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The US currently has about 153 million cellar phone subscribers. Only 10% of all broken or inactive cell phones are recycled each year. Do the math. The rest end up in landfills or incinerators.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is actually launching the National Cell Phone Recycling Week on April 6-12, 2009. The EPA’s pitch is simple. By recycling phones the raw materials can be re-used and save on the electric costs of manufacturing new materials, such as copper, plastic, and glass. By recycling, I’m helping save enough power to keep 2,035 households powered-up for the entire year.

I’ve looked into recycling programs like this in the past, and trying to mail back my cell phone to a recycling center a few states away seemed ridiculous. Luckily the EPA got it right this time, and partnered with several major carriers, allowing the public to drop off their old phones at Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, AT&T, Sprint, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, Staples, and Office Depot stores. For those too lazy to bother, the program still offers ways to mail in phones.

If you do have a working phone, I’ll also suggest you consider donating it the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Donate A Phone or Phones For Life. Both programs give the phones to those in need. Best of all, the donations are tax deductable.

Do the planet some good and put your old phone to use.

Photo: TheGiantVermin

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Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the show, and to celebrate Mother Nature Network (MNN) is going to be posting 20 full streaming episodes of the series throughout the next 12 months. The site was founded on the same premise as Captain Planet — to promoting “green” values and empowering people to make better choices for our planet. Along with the episodes you’ll see many behind-the-scenes featurettes, including a very interesting one about the Captain Planet feature film that started the production stage in 1995.

The film was set in a post-apocalyptic world, similar to the one seen in Blade Runner. The characters all seem to remain the same but with an updated, futuristic look. While I’m not completely convinced that any of this was a good idea, it would have been fun to see Captain Planet (a sketch the featurette didn’t show) and how his look would have been altered for the movie. Let’s face it, spandex and speedos have never done anyone justice. If you’re a fan or new to the series, I’d suggest you check it out. With re-runs being sparse on cable, this might be your best chance to catch up with your childhood favorite.

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