Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Pangea Blog

Home

Home
Progressive Christian
What's Water Worth To You? (Guest post: Dan Martin)

What's Water Worth To You? (Guest post: Dan Martin)

Last updated on: July 6, 2011 at 7:11 pm by Kurt Willems

What's Water Worth To You? (Guest post: Dan Martin) 2011-07-06T19:11:19-07:00 Kurt Willems

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This Lent money raised on this blog will go to Blood: Water Mission to provide clean water in Africa. We only have a few days left and are not yet to 50% of our $200 goal!!!! Please consider giving a few dollars Here. Also, please re-post this and promote our cause on FB and Twitter!!!!

Dan Martin is a personal friend and excellent blogger. He is one of three other blogs that I have been reading since the “early days” of writing. He brings his story about clean water issues to you today…

————————————————–

What is water worth to you, my Western friends? How do you get it, and how do you use it? If you have a “water-saving” shower-head, a 10-minute shower would use 25 gallons. If you have a “water-saving” toilet, every flush is 1.2-1.6 gallons (a regular toilet is 3.5 GPF). Brush your teeth while letting the water run, easily half a gallon or more. Do a load of laundry will take up to 40 gallons for a top-loading machine, or 10-24 gallons for a more-efficient front-loader (source: ehow.com). And let’s not even get started on watering lawns and washing cars…

Of course for us it’s easy. We turn on the tap, and as long as we pay our bill, the water keeps running till we turn it off. I’d like to introduce you to a place where it’s not that easy. All of these photos are taken in the Tandala area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If you’d like to know where that is, put these coordinates into Google Maps and you’ll be in the right ballpark: 4.24343,19.617919. Believe me, it’s out there. I visited DRC in 2007.

Take a look at the water pan this woman is filling:

That pan is so heavy it takes two of her friends to get it up on top of her head. No wonder, it’s got between 18 and 20 gallons of water in it (that weighs between 140 and 160 pounds!). If she is like most of the women I interviewed (and it is ALWAYS women and girls), she walked roughly half an hour from her home to the water point, filled her pan, and now is going to walk another half an hour home.

When she gets there, she’ll put this pan with the other water containers she’s brought during the day. The women I spoke with seemed to average three or four such trips a day to support the cooking and drinking needs of a family of up to five children (laundry and bathing are done at the place water is).

Now stop and back up for a moment: I just said that woman spends an hour or more of her day, to carry one shower’s worth (or five toilet flushes’ worth) of water on her head. Think of how much more she could do to care for her family, and how much pain and stress she could save, if there were water near, or even in, her home.

I haven’t even talked about the issue of whether that water is clean and safe…but the World Health Organization states that almost 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water from any source. Friends, this is a matter of justice! “From him to whom much is given, shall much be required.”

(Series) Simplicity in the Burbs: $2 a day

Previous Post

April 18, 2011

Snot Rags That Heal: The Gap Between my Life and the Strangeness of the New Testament

Next Post

April 21, 2011 De-Sanitizing the Resurrection

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category (Series) All Out War-Spiritual Warfare (Series) Church Plant Journal (Series) Dear Reader... (Series) Earthquakes...Signs of the Times? (Series) Entering the... Conversation (Series) Evangelical Culture Myths (Series) Everything is Meaningless [Pete Enns] (Series) Evolving Evangelicalism (Series) Hell Yes. Hell No! Who Cares? (Series) Hidden Worldviews (Series) If Evolution is Right, what about Adam? (Series) in less than 300 words (Series) Jesus and Nationalism (Series) Liberating Women for Ministry? (Series) Life-Changing Books (Series) Markers of Church Plant Movement (Series) Nonviolence 101 (Series) Philemon - Reconciliation (Series) Quote to Ponder (Series) Red Letter Dialogues (Series) Resource of the Week (SERIES) Revelation Sermons (Series) Share Something Sundays (Series) Simplicity in the Burbs: $2 a day (Series) The Binding of God [Open Theism] (Series) The Creed: Anabaptist Reflections (Series) Values for Church Leadership (Series) Video to Ponder Anabaptism Animal Advocacy Books Church Ministry Church Planting Community Culture Eschatology Eucharist Evangelical Reject Evolution Fundamentalism Greek Greg Boyd Guest Contributors Hell Holy Spirit Israel/Palestine Kingdom of God Lent Missional N. T. Wright Nationalism New Creation Nonviolence Open Mic Open Theism Parenting Passover Paul Philemon Podcast Politics Restorative Justice Revelation (the book of) Rob Bell Ron Martoia Sermon Shane Claiborne Social Justice Speaking Engagement Spiritual Warfare Spirituality Temple Theology Tim Geddert Tribulation Uncategorized universalism Video Blog Women in Ministry Worship Music Youth Ministry

Select a Month August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 December 2016 October 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who baptized Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Peter Elijah Paul John the Baptist

Support this
Column