Protect the water

Iris

导读：美国曾经享有世界优质水的美誉，人们可以直接从水龙头喝水，但现在因污染导致水质很不纯净。3月22日是世界水日（World Water Day），让我们一起来保护水源吧。

Every day， millions of people spend hours walking to find safe water. Safe and clean water changes lives. Yet more than 750 million people around the world are living without it. The U.S. once had one of the safest water supplies in the world. People could drink water right from the tap， but this trust is getting shattered due to pollution. “We often dont think about where our water comes from，” said Steve Fleischli， director for the Natural Resources Defense Council（NRDC） Water Program in Los Angeles. “Does it come from a nearby river， lake， stream or wetland？ Yes， you may have a water treatment plant， but if your water source is not protected， people face a real risk.”

Earlier in Charleston， West Virginia， about 10，000 gallons of a little-known and unregulated chemical leaked from a storage tank into the Elk River. Within a week， more than 400 people were treated at hospitals for sickness. While Congress was holding hearings on the West Virginia accident， the next one happened. Up to 82，000 tons of toxic coal ash poured into the Dan River， near the border of North Carolina and Virginia， from a pond at a closed Duke Energy power plant. This week state health officials warned people not to swim in the river or eat fish from it.

Not only the leaking or pouring accidents but also our daily waste causes pollution. Chemicals from soaps and shampoos get washed down the drain and sewage treatment plants are not always able to remove them. People think bottled water is safer， but thats not always true. The quality of city tap water is regulated far more closely than bottled water.

Vocabulary

shatter v. 破碎

leak v. 測漏

toxic adj. 有毒的

sewage n. 污水

（What can you do to protect the water？）