Monday 8 March 2010

Day 17 - On Tap

Since moving to Buckinghamshire I seem to have had a few problems with water! Fifteen months ago I came in to discover the tank in the loft overflowing, with water flowing down two floors and landing in my study, where the ceiling had caved in. A few months ago I called a plumber because of frozen pipes, and then yesterday I discovered the temporary stand pipe the builders had installed spurting out water into the air. That meant having to unbolt the secure fence which surrounds the building site and turning off the stop-cock. All have caused inconvenience in one way or another and some frustration being no fault of my own.

It's therefore quite sobering to reflect that the Christian Aid 'Count your Blessings' for the third week in Lent has all been about water. How much water has been wasted in my home over the last two years? Each time we flush the toilet we flush away as much water as we drink in a whole month! and a dripping tap can waste as much as 5,500 litres a year. Every 20 seconds a child dies from a disease associated with dirty water. What a thought? in the fifteen minutes it takes to write this 45 children will have died. How often do we turn on the tap and think nothing of it? Christian Aid asks me to give 10p for each step it takes me to go to the nearest tap. I think I need to give 10p for every step to every tap - because adding up I have 15 of them in my home (including the shower), oh yes and there's the stand pipe too!

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