People in need of clean drinking water

Friday, December 21, 2012

Editor's Note: Fort Scott High School English teacher Emily Rountree has been working this semester to raise money for Charity: Water, a nonprofit organization which uses 100 percent of public donations to help fund water projects in places without access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Her goal was to motivate her students to use their writing in class to make a real-world difference. Twelve students got top grades on the project and will be published in the Tribune and online.

Did you know that there are many countries around the world that don't have access to safe drinking water? Just think, that could be you, or someone in your family. My name is Tanner Johnson and I attend Fort Scott High School. In my English three class, we are trying to raise money for Charity Water. Charity Water is an organization that helps people get water in countries where there is no safe drinking water.

In developing countries 780 million people don't have access to clean drinking water. "In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water" ("Why Water," 2012). Women and children are the ones that mainly do the walking. They could be assaulted, or get hurt. Whenever they get home the water that they have brought home is unsafe water that has been in swamps, ponds, or rivers. If they had safe drinking water they wouldn't have that to worry about and they wouldn't be wasting hours of their day. Unsafe drinking water causes many different kinds of diseases that could lead to death. "Ninety percent of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are children under 5 years old," ("Why Water," 2012). "Every 20 seconds a child dies due to the lack of clean drinking water,"("The Crisis," 2012).

You could help save someone's life by donating $20 so we could help get them some safe drinking water. You can easily donate online at, mycharitywater.org/fshsenglish, or you can send a check payable to Fort Scott High School to Emily Rountree, c/o FSHS, 1005 S. Main, Fort Scott, Kan., 66701. If we don't help these people then who will?

Works cited: "The Crisis." Water.org. Water Partners International, 2012. Web. 12 December 2012; "Why Water,"Charitywater.org. Charity: water, 2012. Web. 12 December 2012.