This is easy to answer.

• Without clean water artists would die. There would be no one to paint, sing, dance or tell stories.
• Without clean water, audiences would die. There would be no one to look at the art that someone might have already made.
• Maybe you have some water, but it’s scarce or polluted. If so, you survive, but you are too weak or sick to care one bit about art.
• Maybe you can get good water, but you must walk 3 hours to get it, and 3 hours to return. Have you ever carried a fish tank full of water? Think of carrying it for 3 hours. Think of carrying 3-5 times the amount of water, 3-5 times the weight – enough for your family – for 3 hours. After 6 hours, just to get water, you have to get and cook food. By the time you’re done, you’re exhausted. There is no energy left to even consider creating something new.

Art Here and Now has participated in Blog Action Day before, speaking about the Environment and Climate Change. Those are complex issues, with debate surrounding the causes and impacts on the future. But this one is simple.

Without clean water, people can’t live.
If water is available but scarce, a major part of your life is devoted just to getting it and surviving.
There is no time for something more.
This is already happening, right now, throughout the world.

As important as I believe art is to civilization, history and culture, some basic foundations must exist for art and invention to stand on. One part of that foundation is water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

So that’s depressing.
The good news is, we know how to solve it. We need to get water to people without it.

What can you do?

• Get the facts. The more you know, the more you can help and get others involved. The videos on this page give a great overview. You can learn more from Charity:Water and water.org.
• Give money to get water to people who need it. We have started a campaign for people who love the arts and want to give water, Water from the Arts.
• Communicate. Make art about clean water. If you’re an artist, you are a communicator. Through your work, you can show people the importance of clean water, inspiring people to help. Send links to this story or other pages linked from here. Write your own post.
• Don’t pollute. If you’re an artist, follow our tips from a few years ago and create work in less toxic ways. Don’t use bottled water.
• Use less water. Take quicker showers. Plant plants which match your local climate (so that they can live completely from natural rain water).
• Choose products that take less water to produce. This is called the product’s Water Footprint.

This won’t happen overnight. But our efforts add up to big change.

If you know other ways to connect the arts to providing clean water, let us know and we’ll spread the word.

Related posts:

• Art, Artists, & Climate Change, Resources and Inspiration – Blog Action Day 2009
• We are Honored to be part of Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

posted by Trout Monfalco