Water is a vital resource that everyone needs in order to function. It keeps us hydrated, we use it to bathe, our agriculture needs it to grow; essentially, without its use our entire world as we know it would crumble. To be forbidden from accessing water, or not having the privilege to have safe drinking water is something that doesn't cross our minds on a daily basis. Regardless of how necessary water is to our existence many still take it for granted. Whether we realize it or not, clean water is a privilege not granted to all.
For example, The Flint Water Crisis was a popular story that everyone was following on the news. There were petitions, letters, protests, rallying, and outcry from the country disgusted with the government's inability to grant clean water to a city in desperate need of it. The crisis began in 2014 and believe it or not it still, isn't completely resolved! Since water is a resource that wasn't uprooted from our own every day lives, we can't relate to the difficulties associated with such an incident. As a result, Flint vanished from our own working memories as we continued to have the ability to drink tap water. It has been over two years since April 2014 and the city of Flint, Michigan still is unable to drink their own city water unless it is filtered. I suppose it can be considered one small victory that federal officials have aided to some degree, but the fact that the city is still dealing with the repercussions baffles me. Also, the federal government only proclaimed the water "safe" just last month.
I mean, sure, people always recommend filtered water vs. tap water, however, I can't imagine what it must be like to be mandated to do such a thing. To feel as if your life depended on this conditional. To have no other option unless it is bottled or filtered water. To those who have access to drinkable water, those are luxuries, but for others, those are a necessity. The spectrum of water accessibility gets even more sporadic in various locations. Some don't have the proper engineering or planning to harbor or channel the water, some areas don't even have access to water in general. Then, there are areas like Flint whose water is so contaminated that it became unusable at some point.
In fact, over 5,000 water systems across the country were found to violate the Lead and Copper Rule. 5,000 systems itself and that doesn't take into account the number of people each system serves. Many Americans fail to acknowledge how privileged they are to have clean, drinkable, usable water until such a privilege is revoked. Not to say that I sincerely wish such hardship on anyone's life, however, I would just like to put it into perspective so that we can be thankful for the seemingly invaluable resource that water is. Also that while many don't have to worry about water being an issue, we still shouldn't forget about all those who suffer without clean drinkable water every day.
