Water, water, every where (here) and not a drop to drink (there)

I’ve resided in three Ohio counties and have always lived within 8 miles of Lake Erie. Most of my life I lived ½ mile from this Great Lake. What a blessing. Read on…

• Did you know that 20% of all accessible fresh water on Earth is in the Great Lakes?
• Did you know that the average Greater Clevelander uses 88 gallons of water per day?
• Did you know that 1 gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds?

What if you had to carry all of your water on foot each day for over 4 miles? How much water would you use? Probably a lot less. Probably not 88 gallons.

The children of St. Bonaventure/St. Charles School in Mulajji, Village, Uganda (West Africa), carry jugs of water, sometimes 40 lbs. worth, 4 ½ miles twice a day in order to cook, drink, and bathe. Sometimes they arrive at their water source and find it too busy, too contaminated, or out of water. If one of these situations occurs, then they must move on to the next village and travel even further to procure a few gallons of water.

The children of Greater Cleveland turn on the tap in their kitchens, bathrooms, garden, water fountains, schools, shops, churches, and parks every day. Every time they turn the faucet they get clear, clean, drinkable water. What a blessing.

A local academic and social entrepreneur, Erin Huber, has taken an exhaustive approach to bringing together two worlds - one with rivers and lakes of water, and one with bone dry wells. Her agency, “Drink Local.Drink Tap” is working to balance Cleveland’s overabundance of water with Africa’s dearth of water. It is not about shipping our water overseas. It is about learning to preserve what we have and learning to share our savings with those less blessed. One of the goals is to wean ourselves from factory bottled water (the kind we purchase at the store) and simply fill bottles or glasses with higher quality water from our own pipes. Bottled water costs more than gasoline and is transported across the continent and sometimes across oceans. We then rarely reuse or recycle the plastic containers. When you think about it, it really is absurd, especially when those of us over 30 can remember when water always came from the tap or fountain. The monetary and environmental resources saved from kicking a bad habit could be redirected to drilling wells and creating clean water sources for people who suffer from drought, disease, and despotism.

The social principles of the United Methodist Church implore us to “provide for appropriate recycling and disposal of municipal waste; and assist the cleanup of polluted air, water, and soil.” Couple this with Christ’s commandments to love one another and to serve those in our midst as though they are He, and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to share our blessings with those in need.

Learn more about Making Waves from Cleveland to Uganda at www.drinklocaldrinktap.org. A special screening of the Cleveland Film Festival documentary will be shown on February 25th.