Today is Blog Action Day and that means we’re joining thousands of other blogs in talking about clean water.

It’s easy to take clean water for granted. We turn on the tap and out it comes. At less than a third of a cent per gallon (according to my water bill) we don’t even blink at letting the water run right down the drain.

But that’s not the case around the world. Nearly 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water and it kills 42,000 people every week. Ninety percent are children under 5.

Did you catch that? If those stats are a little impersonal and don’t penetrate your heart, I understand. I’ve been there.

I first heard about clean water as a cause when my wife started donating money to Water for Christmas. My first thought was, “Oh, that’s nice, honey.”

Then in March 2009 my family traveled to Ethiopia to meet our son Milo. There I experienced the reality of unclean water firsthand:

• I saw the people of Ethiopia carrying the five-gallon jerry cans to gather water from muddy streams.
• Milo came home with giardia, a water-borne intestinal parasite common among people with no access to clean water.
• I found myself on my knees in the bathroom, sick. I’d inadvertently swallowed some tap water, maybe from the shower or rinsed dishes, and that’s all it took.

That experience opened my eyes. This was no longer a faceless cause in a faraway country. These were my son’s brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. And that made them my family as well.

I could no longer say, “Oh, that’s nice, honey,” and look away. And so I joined my wife in raising money for clean water:

• For my 30th birthday I offered to shave my head and we raised more than $2,600 for clean water.
• I filled one of those five-gallon jerry cans in the Mississippi River and carried it two miles back to my house to see what it was like (Spoiler alert: It was brutal).
• I wrote a book about my adoption experience and made clean water a crucial part of the narrative. A portion of the proceeds from the book go to clean water, and thanks to a lot of generous friends we’ve raised more than $5,700 for clean water — enough to build a well in Ethiopia.

This is a life or death cause and it’s now intensely personal for me. I couldn’t look my son in the eyes and tell him I ignored the issue.

It’s a big problem, but it’s also easy to help. Twenty dollars can give one person clean water for 20 years. Who knew saving a life could be so cheap.

This post is part of Blog Action Day.