Earth Day reminds us of precious resources

Editor’s Note: Student Union’s weekly columns are a joint effort of the region’s high schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. The following column was written by a Mount Desert Island Regional High School student. The adviser is Beth Blugerman.

As April 22 approaches and we plan the 34th anniversary of Earth Day, we are reminded of the beautiful planet we live on and what we must do to keep it that way. Earth provides us with the important things we need to survive, such as water and food. Without water, nothing can function properly. Sadly, for many people on Earth, clean water is scarce.

For example, villagers in Ghana cannot simply turn on a faucet and guzzle down a glass of water. Since most villages have no accessible water pumps or wells, they must fetch water and carry it home. The water they gather is not only a negligible amount, it is full of bacteria and insects that cause diarrhea and cholera and carry diseases such as malaria.

Because of these diseases, children miss school time and suffer from social, academic and development delays. In an article from Earthday.net, Bilao Tchaa, a 7-year-old girl from a village located in the African country of Togo, tells a group of people what life is like with little water.

“There are no pumps in my village. Every morning I have to walk 3 kilometers to fetch water from a river near my house. The water that I get is very red, but we have nothing else, so we drink it with joy. Every evening, when I get back from school, I make the same journey. The thing I don’t like is that my mom wakes me every morning at 5 o’clock when I want to stay asleep.”

Bilao lives in a country where only 65 percent of the population has access to safe water, less than a quarter have access to sanitation, and almost 75 percent survive on less than 60 cents a day.

Most of the villagers who have access to a government-installed water pump cannot pay the user fees and therefore must get their water from contaminated rivers and lakes, just like Bilao.

Mainly because of these conditions, 15 percent of Togo’s children die before age 5.

Some villages are taking action by educating their children about water sanitation. In the village of Thimmapuram in Andhra Pradesh, India, schoolchildren are able to rattle off facts that most adults wouldn’t know.

“The diseases transmitted from one person to another are known as communicable diseases. Diseases are transmitted by flies from contaminated food and water,” says 10-year-old Laksmi.

Organizations around the globe are trying to raise money and raise awareness to support Togo and other Third World countries.

In 2003, the Mount Desert Island High School’s Interact Club, associated with Rotary International, raised enough money to purchase a well for a village in the Dominican Republic.

For anyone interested in helping this Earth Day, there are plenty of ways that Maine residents can work toward a cleaner, healthier planet.

At Baxter State Park on May 1, volunteers are needed to help in the annual Litter Patrol Cleanup on the roadsides of the Katahdin area. Volunteers can contact park headquarters by April 26 at 723-9616 or e-mail at heather.lee@maine.gov.

On Mount Desert Island, another roadside cleanup will take place Saturday, April 24. The Friends of Acadia need volunteers to clean up the roadsides of MDI from 8:30 to 11:30 am. For registration call Mike Staggs at (207) 288-3340.

As the saying goes, “Every day should be Earth Day.” I hope that more people become aware that water is a precious resource essential to sustaining life on our planet.

If we can keep our Earth clean, then we can provide every living thing with what it needs to survive. If the Earth stays healthy, so do we. So next time you pour that leftover water from your glass down the sink, just remember that someone across the ocean is thirsty.

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School, and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.