World Water Day observed across the globe. - 24 Mar 2010  
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With experts increasingly aware of a looming shortage, this year’s theme of the United Nations’- sponsored event was “Clean Water for a Healthy World.”

Held on March 22, participants worldwide gathered to raise awareness and call for action in protecting both quality and quantities of the precious resource.

As acknowledged by many environmentalists, addressing the massive consumption and pollution of both the meat and dairy industries could effectively eliminate the Earth’s water crises, as this farmer in California, USA shares.

Grape farmer located near dairy factory farms, California, USA (M): The ones that have been doing all these nuts, grapes, vegetables, fruits; we’ve been doing that for the last hundred years. We had a lot of water. The central valley of California feeds America, and also other countries. Ever since the dairy moved in, the water level in my well went dry.

My neighbors’ well went dry. One, two, three, four of our wells are dry. Our water level was really high before. Now our water level is so low, the farmers that are doing all the vegetable and fruits are hurting for water, because we got the dairy here.

VOICE: The United Nations Environment Program also held a three-day event in Nairobi, Kenya, where policy makers and scientist participants released a report revealing that more lives are lost to contaminated water than to wars or other conflicts.

In fact, every 20 seconds, one child less than age 5 succumbs to water-related disease. Highlighting once again a livestock-based source of the majority of the world’s water problems was Mr. Rick Dove of Waterkeepers Alliance in North Carolina, USA.  

Rick Dove – Southeastern representative for Waterkeeper Alliance (M): In eastern North Carolina there are about ten million hogs producing more fecal waste each and every day than all the people in the states of North Carolina, California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Dakota combined.

On some of our rivers like the Neuse, we’ve lost over a billion fish, dead fish since 1991, and just this year we’ve lost about 200 million on the Neuse River.

VOICE: We thank Mr. Rick Dove and all the concerned participants of World Water Day 2010 for helping raise awareness of our need to preserve this life-giving resource.

As more and more people awaken to the link between water scarcity and livestock, may we soon herald a meat-free world of lush abundance for all. 

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the need for action to reverse these planet-wide tolls, as during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Many tens of thousands of  rivers and great lakes are dying, dead, gone or going. And I don’t know how many more we must wait for to die in order for us to wake up.
The leaders of the nations must do something. The people of all nations must do something.

We have to do something to avoid the tragedy that is already happening to billions of other people. There are one billion people hungry already because of climate change, and short of water and food.

And three billion people are short of water.

Just be veg. Stop the meat, dairy, fish industry. Be benevolent. Create a merciful energy that will envelop our world, that will emit mercy, love, protection for us and our children on this planet. Please take action now.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1593806/world-water-day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deane/reflecting-on-world-water_b_508036.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0322/World-Water-Day-Dirty-water-kills-more-people-
than-violence-says-UN
http://yubanet.com/world/World-Water-Day-2010-Highlights-Solutions-and-Calls-for-Action-to-Improve-Water-
Quality-Worldwide.php