Article first published on my personal blog at HIVE.
How many things do we take for granted in our daily lives? Sometimes, routines lead us to operate in automatic mode, leaving for later small changes that could cause us almost immediate benefits. When you teach Natural Sciences, one of the most recurring themes in practically any teaching program is the importance of water for life. Something so simple and something I talk about so often with my students is sometimes relegated to the background in my routines.
Living in Cuba brings many challenges. Sometimes such simple things can become a headache, and water is one of them. Despite being on an island in the middle of the Caribbean, with not at all discouraging annual rainfall averages, access to drinking water is practically a challenge. There are even entire communities without access to a quality, treated water supply. In cities, even accessing water from a home's pipes seems like a pipe dream. But again, no one seems to care.
Since I spend most of my day on my feet or on public transportation, feeling dehydrated is quite common and the hot weather, plus the humidity of the environment, are not a good combination. It is common to suddenly feel extremely tired and not know why, and the solution is a simple glass of water.
Another part of our body that suffers a lot is the skin. We can find signs of dehydration in a large part of the population. The skin becomes dry and dull, losing its shine and youthfulness if the amount of water we consume is not correctly measured.
Much of Cuba's population receives water in tanker trucks, popularly known as pipas. This water is rarely properly treated or has a sanitary protocol behind it. Another complicated story is the way it will be stored in homes, almost always in tanks or buckets, being an ideal place for bacteria to develop. These conditions make digestive diseases proliferate, in addition to becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Undoubtedly, the water situation in my country is more than critical, but it seems to be a problem that everyone ignores because of how simple it seems. But it has brought and will continue to bring a lot of problems to the population. But, like many other things, the solution is not in sight.
What is left for us to do? Well, we have to do a lot of things, some of them very simple but that have an instant impact: more personal hygiene measures, filtering and boiling water, taking our own treated water to different places and, of course, not forgetting to hydrate ourselves. Many applications can help us with continuous reminders and daily goals for the consumption of the vital liquid.
It's easy to ignore these difficulties when you don't live with them on a daily basis. Think about what you can do for people that something as simple as having water in the tap is a luxury. Let's all save a little, it will not solve the problem neither in Cuba, nor in any part of the world, where this is a daily reality, but it will contribute to preserve a good that is becoming increasingly scarce.
If you have made it this far, thank you very much for reading me. Your support means a lot to me and I would be very happy to read you in the comments. Until next time and my best wishes for joy and success. See you soon.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
I apologize if there are any grammatical errors, English is not my native language, I have tried to be as careful as possible.
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