Blog Action Day 2010 is trying to raise awareness around the globe on the issue of water resources. Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

But, water moves beyond just a human rights issue. It’s an environmental issue, an animal welfare issue, a sustainability issue. Water is a global issue, deserving a global conversation.

The following are just a few of many reasons why this is such an important issue:

A Human Right: Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly of the UN declared July 28, 2010, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.

The United Nations expresses deep concern that an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. Studies also indicate about 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water- and sanitation-related diseases.

Cell Phones vs Toilets: Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets, but many more have access to a cell phone. This is a sad fact.

Today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet. And as cities and slums grow at increasing rates, the situation worsens. Every day, lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills thousands, leaving others with reduced quality of life.

Food Footprint: It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.

Relieving hunger in Africa and around the world has to begin with access to clean water. It may seem simple, but we forget that without access to a reliable source of water, food is hard to grow and even more difficult to preserve and prepare. It takes huge amounts of water to grow food.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

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