Matt Damon on the Importance of Water Access

Matt DamonBeing a part of the developed world, we pretty much take clean water for granted. We use it in everything from daily showers to cooking to even washing our pets—but how much of that would we cut out of our routine if we had to lug water jugs for two miles before using it?

Matt Damon recently took a trip to Mekele, Ethiopia with ONEXONE and H2O Africa/WaterPartners to see progress made since the organizations’ set up wells and boreholes there over a year ago. You can watch his videos, see photos and donate to the project here.

Matt talks about a young girl of 14 who had to make that two-mile water trip daily. “On average, women in the developing world walk three and a half miles each day to collect water—time that could be spent in school or at work,” he says.

Now, Matt is asking for your help the way the ONE Campaign always does—by using your voice. By signing this petition, you can ask your Senators to cosponsor the Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act, which would help over 100 million people get access to clean, sanitary water by 2015. Another 15 cosponsors are needed for the act.

I know it’s hard to think of 100 million people without clean water, but these are the facts:

Though the world is made up of 70% water, only 3/10th of 1% of that water is usable to us humans.

17% of people in the world do not have access to safe, clean drinking water—which is about 1 billion people.

Women who have to carry all of this water typically carry 45 pounds of it a day—and households without plumbing spend 90 minutes a day just carrying water.

A child dies every 8 seconds from a disease acquired from unclean water.

By buying bottled water for ourselves, we contribute to the problem—more than a fourth of bottled water is straight from the tap (usually it’s processed to remove odors, but not contaminants), and many bottled water factories take it from their own towns, creating water shortages in those areas.

Not only is it costly to these people and to those buying it (many people pay more for bottled water than they do gasoline!)—it also comes at a high price to the environment. 1.5 million barrels of crude oil are used every year just to make the bottles.

So for today’s action, why not sign the petition above—and then invest in your own home water purification system? We got ours for under thirty bucks, and we just have to change the filter every few months—which is definitely cheaper than buying the bottles.