World Water Day (March22)

Last night while accompanying my roomate for ritualistic indulgance I noticed a sign I had never seen before. The sign was advertising World Water Day, an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. So a few days late, heres my contribution to the celebration.

World Water Facts (http://www.water.org/crisis/waterfacts.htm)

-Presently, 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supply and 2.4 billion to improved sanitation (1). Unless action is stepped up, the number of people who lack access to improved water supply could increase to 2.3 billion by 2025 (13).

-Of all water on earth, 97.5% is salt water, and of the remaining 2.5% fresh water, some 70% is frozen in the polar icecaps. The other 30% is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in underground aquifers. In the end, less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human uses. It is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and in underground sources shallow enough to be tapped at affordable cost (2).

-If all the earth's water fit in a gallon jug, available fresh water would equal just over a tablespoon.

-A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water (3).

-A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive (4, 5).

-The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day (6, 7).

-The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day (7).

-More than 200 million hours are spent each day by women and female children to collect water from distant, often polluted sources (8).

-Approximately 60 to 70% of the rural population in the developing world have neither access to a safe and convenient source of water nor a satisfactory means of waste disposal (9).

-Water systems fail at a rate of 50% or higher (10,11,14,15,16,17).

-According to the UN, 20% of the world's population in 30 countries face water shortages. This number is expected to rise to 30% of the world's population in 50 countries in 2025 (12).

-Some of the world's largest cities, including Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dhaka, Lima, and Mexico City, depend heavily on groundwater for their water supply. It is unlikely that dependence on aquifers, which take many years to recharge, will be sustainable (12).

-Poor people in the developing world pay on average 12 times more per liter of water than fellow citizens connected to municipal systems; these poverty-stricken people use less water, much of which is dirty and contaminated (13).

-Every $1 invested in children, including money to improve access to clean water and sanitation, saved $7 in the cost of long-term public services (18).

I think the facts speak for themselves.... for more info check out www.water.org