How Serious Is Our Water Challenge?

Facts

• Lack of clean water is responsible for more deaths in the world than war. About 1 out of every 6 people living today do not have adequate access to water, and more than double that number lack basic sanitation, for which water is needed.

•  By some estimates, each day nearly 5,000 children worldwide die from diarrhea-related diseases, a toll that would drop dramatically if sufficient water for sanitation was available.

•  Canada has plenty of water, far more than its people need, while the Middle East and northern Africa — to name just two of many — suffer from perpetual shortages.

•  Brazil, some regions are awash in fresh water while other regions, afflicted by drought, go wanting. 

• And in some developing countries, water supplies are contaminated not only by the people discharging toxic contaminants, but also by arsenic and other naturally occurring poisonous pollutants found in groundwater aquifers.

• Water for drinking and personal use is only a small part of society’s total water needs — household water usually accounts for less than 5 percent of total water use,the other are used for sanitation, most of the water we use is for agriculture and industry.

•  About 3 percent of the planet’s water is fresh, but most of that is in the form of snow or ice. 

• Water contained in many groundwater aquifers was mostly deposited in earlier, wetter times, and the rate of use from some aquifers today exceeds the rate of their replenishment.

• “Overcoming the crisis in water and sanitation is one of the greatest human development challenges of the early 21st century,” a recent U.N. report warns.