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Today's Daily Dose of Hope is sponsored by 1440, the free daily newsletter for the insatiably curious. In about five minutes each morning, it gives you a fact-driven rundown of the day's news from 100+ sources, without the clickbait. If you believe, as I do, that hope grows best on a foundation of clear eyes and good information, give it a try.
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How long did it take you to get a glass of water this morning?
Seconds? All you had to do was turn a handle, right? Did you know that roughly one in four people on Earth, that same glass costs a walk, a wait, or a gamble on whether it will make them sick? The latest WHO/UNICEF numbers say 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, including 106 million who drink straight from untreated surface sources.
So why does clean water give someone hope?Hope needs a tomorrow, and a tomorrow needs a morning that isn’t already spent. Clean water hands the morning back. Hope returns one hour at a time.
Here are three reasons why hope returns one hour at a time
It gives people their hours back
In most countries that collect data, women and girls are primarily responsible for fetching water. Many of those countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia spend more than 30 minutes a day on it. One UN study of 24 sub-Saharan countries found that women who collected water averaged 54 minutes, while men averaged 6.
Pause for a moment and reflect on that one. One hour a day. What does it do to someone over a childhood? A World Bank study from Ghana found that cutting water-fetching time in half raised girls’ school attendance by 2.4 percentage points on average. A newer international review found medium-sized effects of water supply improvements on girls’ school attendance, with no significant effect for boys. The water didn’t change who those girls were. It changed what their day had room for. That room is where hope starts.
Hope with a return: the math is almost embarrassing
How is this for a return on investment? WHO and UN-Water estimated that every dollar invested in water and sanitation returns $4.30, mostly through lower health care costs. World Bank economist Guy Hutton ran the numbers on basic drinking water at home for everyone. His estimate was that it would cost $14 billion a year until 2030 and yield $52 billion in benefits, with about 170,000 fewer deaths a year.
Hutton’s study counted only health benefits and time saved. The study leaves out intangibles like dignity, social status and security. The qualitative items can’t easily be priced. Anyone who’s ever felt safe in their own home knows they’re worth plenty. If we look at the overall hope, the four to one payback is certainly worth the investment.
It’s proof that hard things can get fixed
The same report that counts the 2.1 billion also notes that billions of people have gained access to safe drinking water since 2000. In rural areas, safely managed drinking water coverage rose from 50 to 60 percent between 2015 and 2024. That’s ten points in under a decade, in geographies that were furthest behind.
These facts are incredibly persuasive. A problem as old as civilization can move when people decide it should. It still has a way to go, though. The same report warns that urban coverage has stagnated. And the 2030 goal is slipping.
My take on hope related to water
I’ve spent many years around sustainability work. We talk about hope as a feeling. In reality, for a lot of people it’s closer to a schedule. You can’t plan a future if every sunrise is already spoken for. A tap in the yard, a well down the road, a clean cup for a kid before school. That’s what turns “someday” into “next year.”
Clean water is one of the quietest kinds of hope I know. Nobody cheers when it arrives. They just start doing other things. And, the hope shows up in the hours they get back.
Hope isn’t always a big idea. Sometimes it’s an hour you didn’t have yesterday.
Question
If someone handed you back one hour every morning for the rest of your life, what’s the first thing you’d do with it?
Attributions
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