The right to clean water is a right that we often take for granted. Except in cases of shortage and drought, most of us tend to assume that water will just pour out of the faucet whenever we turn it on. We can drink clean water whenever we want to, and we can take showers or baths whenever we feel like it. We can hose down our cars and keep our lawns green with as much water as we want. This free access to water is something that is so essential to keeping our persons and our dignity intact, and yet is something that we always take for granted.

But that is not the same in depressed areas where the poorest of the poor live, not just in the Philippines but anywhere else in the world where poverty exists. Clean water, something that we do not value that much is a treasure to them because their access to it is so limited.

More often than not, in order to have clean water to use every day, some people have to travel to a source of water for many times in a day, bearing pails, jugs and other containers. The source is either something like a river or a spring or a stream, or it could be a well or a public faucet. They have to fall in line just to get some water, and they have to carry their heavy containers back home. Sometimes, the quality of the water that they draw out from the source is dubious; it is not surprising to find it a little too chlorinated, too cloudy or too muddy. Those who do not mind the extra expense and effort it takes boil their water, or at least strain it before drinking or using it for cooking. Those who cannot afford to do so just let the water they collected stand for a while and use it as it is.

Because the quality of the water supplied to slum areas is dubious, it is not really surprising that water-borne diseases are common in the slums. Reports of diarrhea epidemics and similar diseases are commonplace in depressed areas, not just in the Philippines. Moreover, since it is hard to fetch water in these places, cleanliness is sometimes not that high a priority.

So, next time you take a shower, you may appreciate it more. There are people who live in places, not just in the Philippines, where water is so scarce and hard to get that they cannot even restore their dignity with a cold shower

Thesa is an experienced writer and publicist. She has 12 years experience in writing well-researched articles of various topics, SEO web content, marketing and sales content, press releases, sales scripts, academic essays, E-books and news bits.