Water for Our Toilets

The old H2O is kind of a funny thing. Most of my life I don't even think about it. I drink it, mix it with Gatorade powder and then drink that, wash my car with it, let it wash me, and even make it swirl around and down the porcelain throne. And all the while I seldom to never stop to think about the wonders of the relationship between two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It really is beautiful.

I guess if I was in many villages in Africa I would be more cognizant of the wonder of the water. At the Catalyst conference I went to a while back we saw a video about how many people have to walk miles to get water, and that water is polluted with all kind of crap. Then, when they get it back to their village they use it to bathe, to wash their clothes, and then to cook and to drink. There are literally thousands of people who are sick and even dying because their five gallon jars are filled with filthy polluted water.

What got me thinking about all of this to begin with was when I was using the restroom facilities at Starbucks, looked at the top of the urinal (yes, I know this is too much information right now) and it said 1.2 gallons per flush. 1.2 gallons per flush! The amount of clean water (well, to begin with) that I flush down the toilet each time would be enough to make a sick person healthy. I know I can't ship water to Africa and boycotting the bathroom won't really help the situation, but it just seems like there's something wrong with the world when I flush multiple times a day what would keep others in the world alive. Praise God that the world will be set right someday and everyone will have the H2O they need.