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Photo: mattman23
1. Over 1.5 billion people do not have access to clean, safe water.
Photo: ePi.Longo
2. Almost 4 million people die each year from water related diseases.
12. The average toilet uses 8 litres of clean water in a single flush.
13. At any one time, more than half the world’s poor are ill due to inadequate sanitation, water or hygiene.
14. It takes over 11,000 litres of water to produce a pound of coffee.
15. Half the world’s schools do not have access to clean water, nor adequate sanitation.
16. It takes about 300 litres of water to make the paper for just one Sunday newspaper.
17. Agriculture is responsible for about 70% of the world’s water usage. Industry uses a further 22%.
18. 443 million school days are lost each year due to water related illness.
19. On average, women in Africa and Asia have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water.
Photo: rachelmolenda
20. The average dishwasher uses over 100 litres per cycle.
21. It takes up to 5000 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice.
22. 80% of all illness in the developing world comes from water born diseases.
Photo: Sacca
23. Drilling a fresh water well can cost anything from a few hundred dollars to over $40,000.
24. Over 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.
25. 90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers or streams without any treatment.
26. About 1.8 million child deaths a year are due to diarrhea.
Photo: Sacca
27. An 18 litre can of water weighs 20 kilos.
28. About half the world’s hospital beds are occupied by someone with a water related illness.
29. A five minute shower in an American household will use more water than a person living in a developing world slum will use in a whole day.
30. A third of the people without access to clean water live on less than a dollar a day. More than two thirds live on less than two dollars a day.
31. Water consumption in a US household is eight times that of an Indian household.
32. In India alone, water born diseases cost the economy 73 million working days per year.
33. In sub-Saharan Africa a child’s chance of dying from diarrhea is over 500 times greater than in Europe.
34. Approximately 2.5 billion people lack access to appropriate sanitation facilities.
35. About 1.2 billion people have absolutely no access to a sanitation facility.
36. In a typical year in Africa 5–10 times the number of people die from diarrhea than from war.
Photo: Julien Harneis
37. Simply washing hands can decrease the chance of diarrhea by around 35%.
38. Global sales of bottled water account for over $60-$80 billion each year.
39. A child dies of water born diseases about every 15 seconds (that’s about 12 children just since you started reading this article). By this time tomorrow, another 2,500 will be dead.
40. As little as one dollar can provide clean water for a child in the developing world for an entire year.
Community Connection:
Want to help? www.charitywater.org, thewaterproject.org, www.water.org, and www.onedollarwater.com are just three of the hundreds of charities trying to bring clean water to the developing world.
Want to know how much water you’re using? Calculate your water footprint.
Matt Scott
Having spent the majority of his adult life traveling and working abroad, Matt Scott has plenty to write about; his writing and photos have appeared in publications around the world, both on line and in print. Originally from the UK he currently lives in Paris, where he works as a trip leader for an active travel company.
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Кыргызстан, пойми наконец, чем ты владеешь!
Wenn Sie gegen Plastik Flaschen sind.
dann denken Sie an die Hilfsorganisationen und die Katastrophen dieser Welt.
zum Beispiel in Haiti oder Japan etc.etc.
OHNE WASSER IN FLASCHEN WÜRDEN DIESE MENSCHEN VERDURSTEN.
If you are against plastic bottles. then think of the aid agencies and the disasters of this world. For example, in Haiti or Japan, etc.etc. WITHOUT WATER BOTTLES IN THESE PEOPLE WOULD die of thirst.
we have to drink pure water bt every drop of water is neccesary….
we once thought it was an endless natural resource. But Now we know better.
pls stop wasting water resources.
Please start spelling the full word out.
Rain harvesting is not only a solution for this… Awareness in human make anything possible…
closing tap to using rain properly…
This was a great article in that it makes me mindful every time I turn on the tap. It’s also woefully misleading, in that it implies that shortening my five minute shower to let’s say three minutes, will somehow benefit people in developing countries. The reality is that unless and until water can be efficiently transported in large volumes from water-rich areas to water-poor areas, then my water footprint does not affect the global community at large (assuming obviously that I’m within a few standard deviations of average per-capita American water consumption).
@Matt Scott, comparing my water usage to somebody in let’s say India (#31 on the list), while it may be a true statement, doesn’t actually inspire me to do anything differently. That same household in India, that uses 1/8 as much water as me is probably also highly correlated with #32, the group that has a significant number of incidences of water-borne illnesses. So the question becomes, what’s the *right* amount of water usage? The average toilet sure enough may use 8 liters a flush, but is that what it takes to ensure proper sanitation? Sure, I spend 30 seconds washing my hands and use 1-2 gallons of hot water in the process, but is that what it takes to ensure low diarrhea rates?
For me, this article does not necessarily inspire me to use less water, but it does two other things. 1) makes me believe that increased water usage can and does help prevent disease, and 2) stresses the importance of developing aquifers, aqueducts, and other infrastructure in developing countries to allow people access to clean water.