In 8 minutes, the City of Toronto is going to shut down our water. In the one hour leading up to this moment, I must have gone to the washroom 5 times. I’d better go again, just in case. There’s no telling when this water will come back. The question is a matter of being “when” – not “if”. Living in Canada has never presented any risk to me of not having enough to drink, not being able to take long hot showers and not being able to flush the toilet how many times I please. Niagara Falls is a hop, skip and a jump away. And yet this water shutdown has stressed me out. It has made me think that today, I just might get COVID. All because I could not wash my hands with soap and water.
Jane Doe has a bigger problem on her hands. She needs to show up for her shift in person today and it turns out that her work falls within the grid of this water shutdown. Of all times, it happens to be the first day of her month. There is only one washroom. And to leave it in such a state is like crime. To save herself from the embarrassment, she decides to not show up to work. She loses pay. Losing water in Toronto is a one-off encounter; we’ll get over it. But let’s take a closer look overseas at the Philippines and Vietnam. When female workers have their menstrual periods, they are forced to miss work because their place of employment has no water. That amounts to 13.8 million and 1.5 million no-shows, respectively; the equivalent of $1.28 million USD. To paint an even bleaker picture, it takes 200 million hours, ie. 22,800 years for almost 230 million women and girls to carry water to their homes. Along the way, they can be attacked and have accidents.
2 billion people around the world have to live like this every day, hanging on a thread because of water and lack thereof. Water Stress is a thing. It is a measure of how much is used in relation to how much is available. Ironically, “World Water Day” was celebrated on March 22, 2021, just a few days prior to my now trivialized water woes. If you are living in a First World country, then by all means, celebrate “World Water Day”. But if you fall in the 30% category with no access to clean drinking water and 55% with unsafe sanitation, then there is no reason to rejoice. And to offer some perspective here, these numbers were derived from the year 2017. It is going to take $1.5 trillion USD per year to invest in clean water by year 2030. We have a long way to go.
(https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375751)
(https://www.worldwaterday.org/)
To get through this pandemic, we need soap and we need water. Yet, there are threats of water privatization and debates on how to go about putting a price tag on the true value that water can confer. This is more than an appraisal for a priceless work of art; this is somebody’s life.
If water insecurity persists, then there will be more pandemics – even worse than COVID-19, god-willing. We cannot just stand by and watch our people live in conditions that are not even fit for dogs. Water is our fundamental basic human right. It is everyone’s right.
(https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-55928910)
