If you use the rivers for your fun and sport and yet on the other hand you do not take care to conserve and not to pollute water – that would be hypocritical.
Are we doing everything to keep our waters clean and safe, are we always acting responsibly? This is not just about our behaviour on the rivers, but also off the rivers and back home. On the one hand, we worry about whether everything we have taken to the river will be taken back with us and what we shouldn’t even take to the river in the first place, but then back in our homes are we considering the water we are using for our modern way of life?
So the message I want to bring to you is: Every drop counts!
The river you choose to paddle is most likely not polluted, but have you thought about the other rivers in your area? Has industry been kept away from some rivers (which you now enjoy) but others are being destroyed because of it? We often lose sight of those rivers, the ones that get sacrificed so we can have our modern life styles which put great demands on industry and hence on our environment.
Every drop counts!
Many of us leap at the chance to judge others on what they are doing to the rivers and are quick to sign petitions that want to protect rivers. But how many actually make it a part of their every day life to conserve, protect and recycle water where possible and so have a right to attack others for not doing it?Are we simply hypocrites?
Do not forget: Every drop counts!
The products we use every day need tons of water to be produced. We use enormous amounts of water every day for drinking, cooking, washing ourselves, our possessions and for flushing in the bathrooms. It was only during recent water shortages when I was forced to fetch water in containers for our daily lives I became very aware of how much water we consume each day!
Some of those who attended the 2011 WRC in Costa Rica complained about various aspects of the event, but nature did not complain! That event was certified as the first carbon neutral world sports event ever! And that is no small task and is one we should be extremely proud of.
Water – every 20 seconds a child in the world dies as a result of technically defective water, 1.5 million annually!!!
Spending = Polluting!
Water used for every products –
- approximately 9 5 litres of water is used in the process of refining and 4 litres of gasoline.
- For the production of one piece of A4-paper 10 litres of water is used.
- 2650 litres of water for one new cotton shirt.
- Production processes of alcoholic drinks and beverages use a lot of water. For production of glass of beer is used 75 litres of water, for glass of wine is used about 120 litres and for cup of coffee 140 litres. If you choose to drink orange juice than you should know that for growing a single orange is used about 50 litres of water and for production of 1 litre of juice is used 1200 litres of water.
- During the growing of a 1 kg of potatoes is used 500 litres water and for production of 1 kg of rice is used 1900 litres of water.
- If you want to eat chicken you should know that during the growing of a chicken used is 1500 litres water, production of 1 kg of chicken meat needs 3500 litres water and for production of an egg is used 500 litres of water.
- A dairy cow must drink 15 litres water to produce one gallon (3.78 litres) of milk. If you eat beef than be aware that 10,000 litres of water are used for production and it if you choose a burger amount of water used is 2400 litres.
- It takes around 6800 litres of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular ol ‘blue jeans. Not as bad as jeans, it still takes a whopping 1500 gallons of water to grow the cotton required for an ordinary cotton shirt. Production of a pair of jeans uses 8000 litres water and production of one t-shirt uses 2700 litres.
- About 95 litres of water is used to manufacture a plastic bottle and about 40 litres for aluminium can.
- It takes an estimated 148,000 litres of water to make a car. It’s unclear if that includes the 7600 litres used to make its tires.
I could go on and on but I just wanted to make a point and to remind you to rethink about some things – have we really raised the standard to a higher level? Or have we just sunk a little lower?
So next time you are ready to protest someone’s actions, remember that you need to keep your head up too and to try alter your lifestyle so as to minimise your own contribution to polluting the water.
I’m not saying this because I am an angel, I too forget about all this and do not give my best to prevent excessive pollution. But I am trying and hope that I will steadily improve at it and I hope to encourage more of you to improve as well. “Let only those who are not sinful throw stones.”
I hope this little prompt will encourage at least some of you to make those baby steps in the right direction.
For those who prefer a visual picture of why we need to do this …
