In March 2008, wikipedia reported that the world’s population is believed to have reached over 6.65 billion.
I have researched the following information to get people to realise how precious water is.
Statistics taken from wikipedia and the BBC News and Water aid websites, respectively.
1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, this is roughly one sixth of the world’s population.
2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is roughly two fifths of the world’s population.
1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day.
WaterAid projects providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education cost just 15 per head. (WaterAid)
The simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%. (British Medical Journal)
The integrated approach of providing water, sanitation and hygiene reduces the number of deaths caused by diarrhoeal diseases by an average of 65%. (WHO)
Water-related disease is the second biggest killer of children worldwide, after acute respiratory infections like tuberculosis.
The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 20kg, the same as the average UK airport luggage allowance.
The following statistics are mind boggling. Please let us all take responsibility for clean, safe water for all.
The BBC news channel team reported the following on the world water crisis. The world’s supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water.
Ninety five percent of the UNITED STATES’ fresh water is underground. As farmers in the Texan High Plains pump groundwater faster than rain replenishes it, the water tables are dropping. North America’s largest aquifer, the Ogallata, is being depleted at a rate of 12 billion cubic metres a year. The Ogallala stretches from Texas to South Dakota, and waters one fifth of US irrigated land. Many farmers in the High Plains are now turning away from irrigated agriculture, as they become aware of the hazards of overpumping, and realise water is not in endless supply.
MEXICO CITY is sinking because of the amount of water being pumped out from beneath its foundations. As the city grew in size, the water problem magnified. With no adequate drainage system, today rainwater mixes with sewage and is used for irrigation. The city is now at serious risk of running out of clean water.
Water is the most precious resource in the MIDDLE EAST, more important even than oil. Competition for water from the River Jordan was a major cause of the 1967 war. As populations increase, water becomes more scarce, aggravating regional tensions.
The ZAMBEZI river basin in southern Africa is one of the most overused river systems in the world. Although the countries through which the river flows usually vie with each other to harness the water power, at other times they are deluged by floods and heavy rain. The region experienced the worst floods in living memory in March 2000, exacerbated by Zimbabwe opening the Kariba dam gates.
The most sacred Hindu river, the Ganges, is so depleted that the Sundarban wetlands and mangrove forests of Bangladesh are seriously threatened. It is also said to contain unacceptable levels of arsenic. As more trees are chopped down, and more buildings erected along its banks, the glaciers supplying the river have been melting, raising fears of shortages and drought downstream.
All three rivers feeding China’s Northern Plain are severely polluted, damaging health and limiting irrigation. The lower reaches of the Yellow river, which feeds China’s most important farming region, ran dry for 226 days in 1997. Northern China is home to two thirds of the country’s cropland but only one fifth of its water.
Outbreaks due to water supply
In 1980, a hepatitis A surge due to the consumption of water from a feces-contaminated well, in Pennsylvania [8]
In 1987, a cryptosporidiosis outbreak is caused by the public water supply of which the filtration was contaminated, in western Georgia [9]
Fluoride intoxication in a long-term hemodialysis unit of university hospital due to the failure of a water deionization system [10]
In 1993, a fluoride poisoning outbreak resulting from overfeeding of fluoride, in Mississippi [11]
In 1993, Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak
An outbreak of typhoid fever in northern Israel, which was associated with the contaminated municipal water supply [12]
In 1997, 369 cases of cryptosporidiosis occurred, caused by a contaminated fountain in the Minnesota zoo. Most of the sufferers were children [13]
In 1998, a non-chlorinated municipal water supply was blamed for a campylobacteriosis outbreak in northern Finland [14]
In 2000, a gastroenteritis outbreak that was brought by a non-chlorinated community water supply, in southern Finland [15]
In 2004, contamination of the community water supply, serving the Bergen city centre of Norway, was later reported after the outbreak of waterborne giardiasis [16]
In 2007, contaminated drinking water was pinpointed which had led to the outbreak of gastroenteritis with multiple aetiologies in Denmark [17]
When will people worldwide have enough clean, safe water to drink?
When each one of us take responsibility and stop wastage and make generous donations. When governments implement better water supply systems in developing countries, so that under developed countries can benefit from the financial gain.
