Water - Something We Take For Granted

As I was reviewing my most recent water bill and focusing on the amount I had to pay, I had overlooked one important statistic that was on the opposite side. That statistic was the amount of water consumed which was described in terms understandable to the average Joe. My family of six had used slightly over 12,000 gallons of water in one month. This factored out to 2,000 gallons per person per month which averages out to more than 66 gallons per person per day.
I don’t want to give the Water and Sewer Commission any food for fodder but I couldn’t help but think how much people pay for bottled water. What if we had to pay say 25 cents per gallon for the water we consumed? My water bill for 12,000 gallons would be three thousand dollars.

For a moment let’s forget about the cost and focus on the seemingly unending availability of water which we enjoy in the city of Boston. What would we do if there was some form of contamination or drought or other reason that severely diminished our water supply? The answer to this question is in a story in today’s New York Times. According to the United Nations, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 in India die each year largely due to the lack of clean water.

While I open my tap and am always assured that water will flow there are millions in other places such as Gaeta, the town in Italy where I was born in, that opening of the tap will provide you only drops. Water rationing has been the norm during the summer months. You just can’t come in at any time and decide to take a shower like we do here. I wonder how my sons would cope under those conditions. I hope that we never have to resolve to scrounging for water each day like many people do in other parts of the world. The NY Times article mentions the plight of one woman in New Delhi -

“On average, she gets no more than 13 gallons a month from the tap and a water bill from the water board that fluctuates from $6 to $20, at its whimsy, she complains, since there is never a meter reading anyway. “

Quite a stark difference from the12,000 gallons we consumed last month In writing this I’m preparing to talk to all family members and hope I can educate them in being more observant of the water they waste in their daily routines. I lived at both ends of the spectrum and will always remember as a little boy of seven how I would walk half a mile to the town square and queue up in line to fill a bucket full of water to bring back to my mom. You see we didn’t have running water in my house when I was growing up.

You might say that there’s no comparison between the infrastructure of the US and India but just think in these days of terrorism what would it take to contaminate our drinking water. If we are annoyed and angered by the loss of electricity for a few hours just think what it would be like if we didn’t have water.