Thursday, Apr. 10, 2008

By KRISTIINA PAHKALA

Tokyo

The March 23 article "Billions may lack safe drinking water by 2025: U.N." mentions that new ways to provide clean water to citizens are being tested. Water users themselves, however, have very little or no knowledge about the problem.

In my opinion citizens know too little about the importance of water. Being indispensable to all life, it should be used with care, and not in the way we often use it. We pollute it and throw our garbage in it, even though water is the reason why we exist. Governments and organizations spend money to make people aware of global warming but do not do the same for water-related problems.

Governments and organizations should seriously consider developing programs or advertisements that can help make citizens aware of the fact that they are overusing water and teach them ways to reduce their daily usage of it. This approach could help conserve water for future generations.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

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