It may be the biggest understatement of all time, but here’s a newsflash for you: Water is important.

Really, really important.

This may sound like a no-brainer but the stuff seems to always take a backseat to sexier beverages like soda, juice, beer and wine. Every detail about the cool, wet liquid is vital — whether it’s clean, how we distribute it, if there’s enough of it.

But where would we be without water? Here are some fun facts from the organization allaboutwater.org that show just important it is:

• Roughly 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.

• At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.

• A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.

• The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.

• The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this water.

And it seems like water has been in the news a lot recently with everything from water-line breaks to boil advisories to new distribution systems to whether not it floods into our homes.

Living in the great country that we do, it is easy to take water for granted. Many people in the world are not nearly as fortunate as Americans. Hundreds of countries face significant challenges delivering drinkable water at all, running or otherwise.

Organizations like Rotary International put a lot of money and manpower into developing wells and other clean water sources across the world. This is an ongoing battle, certainly something we could all probably think about a little more as we walk to the sink and turn on the faucet or grab a bottle of water from the fridge or store.

What would we do if these convenience an option? Our view of water would likely be a whole lot different.

So before we get too upset over water-line breaks, boil-water advisories or other temporary issues, let’s all pause to remember how good we have it.

All this talk has made me thirsty. I think I’ll go grab a refreshing glass of H2O to help provide me the proper perspective.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.