I volunteered in a povertized village in China 5 years ago. This village is located beside the longest river in the country, Yellow River. The area is surrounded by massifs causing an inconvenient transport system, and villagers had to walk 10 kilometers to the nearest public transit stop. I remember most of the volunteers needed to walk to the closest town to fetch water. The elders from the village told us they used to fetch it from the Yellow River, and that there was also many resources that they could use. However, the environment paid the price when China was expeditiously developing during the late 1990's. This caused the Yellow River to become undrinkable. Villagers became sick, and adults from the village started to seek jobs in cities because of the loss of resources. As a result, only seniors and children were left in the village because they cannot seek clean water for themselves. I was surprised water can change so much about our lives and realized it’s a resource we need to cherish.