Today, October 15, 2010, is the annual Blog Action Day when bloggers from all over the world bring awareness to one common  issue.  And, a worthier cause, couldn’t be found.  This year, the focus is on clean water.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Living in Los Angeles, we rarely have to think about our water.  You open the tap and you have sparkling water come out.  We go to the store and the only decision we have to make is what brand of water to buy and whether or not we want to shell out more $s on a pretty, designer container.  However, did you know that 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies. That is approximately one in eight people.

Per Water.org, today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet. And as cities and slums grow at increasing rates, the situation worsens. Every day, lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills thousands, leaving others with reduced quality of life.

More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet!

Can you imagine?

Here are some facts about water:

1. 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.
2. Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
3. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.
4. At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
5. Almost two in every three people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day and one in three on less than $1 a day.
6. Agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater by far: about 70% of all freshwater withdrawals go to irrigated agriculture.

Learn more about water issues and help spread the word.  Please visit www.water.org

Some of the local Pasadena blogger posts on this issue:

Petrea Burchard of Pasadena Daily Photo

I will add more posts as I find them.  Feel free to leave a link in the comment section with your post information.