WATER FOR LIFE

You've probably heard your parents tell you to "drink 8 glasses of watera day". But did you ever stoptowonder why WATER is so important? It's because WATER is necessary for maintaining LIFE. We all began life as a single cell bathed in a nourishing fluid. Even after we became a beautifully organized, air-breathing body of billions of cells, each individual cell had to remain next to water to remain alive. That water brings to each cell the exact ingredients it requires and carries the end products of the life-sustaining reactions that take place within its boundaries.

WATER is the most necessary nutrient of them all - so necessary that people can't survive for more than a few days without it. Water provides the medium for transportation, chemical reactions, protection, lubrication, and temperature regulation in the human body.

WATER is the main ingredient in all the fluids that make up our body systems. These fluids travel through our body, carrying nutrients and wastes to and from all our cells and organs. Some of the water is part of the chemical structure of compounds that form the cells, tissues and organs of the body. For example, protein holds water molecules with them. Fatty substances are specially packaged with water-soluble proteins so that they too can travel freely in the blood and lymph.

So, what are some of the body systems that call for WATER? Well, your digestive system is one - water acts as solvent for all the products of digestion. It is the basis of the juices in your digestive system, so you can digest food properly. Another one is your excretory system - it makes up the biggest part of the urinary system as urine, to help you get rid of the liquid wastes in your body. Aside from this is perspiration (also called sweat), this is water that comes through the skin, as part of your body's temperature-regulating system.

For more information on "WATER for LIFE " which is this year's theme for International Earth Day Celebration, you may contact the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), spearheading this year's celebration.

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