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780 million people live without clean water everyday

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780 million people (and growing) live without clean water everyday .

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844 million people lacked basic water services in 2015, and amongst that number 159 million people collected water directly from surface water sources.

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Source: http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/water/

Diarrhoea (a disease causes by drinking contaminated water and not having a way to efficiently wash your hands and body) has been estimated to have killed 1.5 million kids per year.

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Despite being the source of clean water for lots of the world, the inhabitants of Fiji have very little access to clean wTer

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Clean Water for Fiji

Once reviled by European explorers as a bastion of cannibalism, Fiji is now sought after by descendants of the same as a vacation paradise. But there's more to the rainforest-blanketed gem than meets the eye. Deep below the islands' lush tropical greenery and lavish resorts lies a clear, flavorless commodity: water. It's a resource that has made a lot of money for Stewart and Lynda Resnik, California corporate agricultural magnates extraordinaire and owners of Fiji Water. One of the more popular bottled waters on the market, Fiji has offered what it markets as pure water (sure, it's pure, but how much more pure it is than regular tap water is debatable) for more than a decade. That water has been enjoyed by First-world consumers around the globe, but historically, not much of it has reached the actual inhabitants of Fiji.

That may change. Although it lacks a record of credibility, Fiji's government announced this week that over the next three years, it will work to provide clean drinking water to more of its citizenry. Fiji's population is just shy of 850,000 people-roughly the same size as Jacksonville, Florida-but only 47 percent of Fiji Islanders, many of whom are poor and live in rural areas, have access to clean drinking water. In an effort to comply with the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, the Water Authority of Fiji pledged that 60 percent of the population will have access to clean drinking water by 2014.
Accorfing to an investigative report in Mother Jones, Fiji Water sold 180 million or so bottles of water in 2006 (nobody outside the company really knows for sure how many they sell each year, just that Hollywood actors adore the product so). That's equal to about 15 percent of Fiji's drinking water requirements. But after being pumped from an underground aquifer directly into bottles made from the finest Chinese plastic, Fiji Water is shipped overseas, much of it to the U.S.

Fiji Water is big money, but is involved in a number of philanthropic projects in its host country. The company claims it has helped 40,000 people gain access to clean drinking water. But it also enjoyed tax exempt status there from 1994, when it was created, until last fall. So its hard to imagine that Fiji's government had access to the kind of funding it needs to bring water to remote rural populations on its 100 inhabited islands. Fiji the country has been making noise about levying a tax on Fiji the company for several years, with the latter stating openly its intent to leave and take its business elsewhere if the exemption were removed. But even after a temporary bottling plant closure, the government finally gained the upper hand by threatening to lease the land on top of the famously prodigious aquifer to a more compliant party. Perhaps now that the state collects a 15-cent-per-bottle extraction tax from the American corporate giant, it will be able to afford implementing its clean water service goal. Only time, and a lack of political upheaval, will tell.

-

Columbia Water Center demonstrates research-based solutions to global freshwater scarcity and climate-related water risks. Follow Columbia Water Center on Facebook and Twitter

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Once reviled by European explorers as a bastion of cannibalism, Fiji is now sought after by descendants of the same as a vacation paradise. But there's more to the rainforest-blanketed gem than meets the eye. Deep below the islands' lush tropical greenery and lavish resorts lies a clear, flavorless commodity: water.

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About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and  96.5 percent of all Earth's water is salt water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers and that is drinkable

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$260 B ,money lost globally each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation
https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

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that the MDG target to extend access to improved sanitation from 54% of the global population in 2000 to 77% in 2015 has not been met. The target has been missed by almost 700 million people, and 57 countries made “no or limited” progress.

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Around the world, 946 million people still go to the toilet outside. Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentry, hepatitis A and typhoid. A huge global effort has been focused on reducing these numbers and new data from the WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme, which has measured the progress made on access to drinking water and sanitation since 1990, shows that there have been improvements in certain areas.

Eritrea's neighbour Ethiopia has achieved the largest decrease in the proportion of the population practising open defecation, from 92% in 1990 to 29% in 2015.

"Ethiopia has made a concerted effort to reduce open defecation rates over the past five years," says Tim Brewer, Wateraid's policy analyst on monitoring and accountability. "The government came up with a plan of action to get everyone in the country to stop practising open defecation, and made sure that donors contributing to the sanitation sector also followed the same plan. This hasn't been the case in Eritrea, where there has been conflict."

Brewer says the two countries are a good example that sanitation is not only down to environmental factors, but also to whether governments are willing to invest time and resources into making change happen.

Nine in 10 people who practice open defecation live in rural areas. But at the current rates of reduction it is estimated that open defecation will not be eliminated among the poorest in rural areas by 2030 - one of the targets of the sustainable development goals.

How many people around the world have access to improved sanitation facilities?

Among the world's city-dwellers, 82% of people now use an improved sanitation facility, defined as one that hygienically separates human waste from human contact. Only 51% of the global rural population has access to such facilities.

Globally it is estimated that 2.4 billion people still lack improved sanitation. They live primarily in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In sub-Saharan Africa rapid population growth matched by insufficient progress means that numbers without access to sanitation have increased since 1990 to 17% of the population.

Which countries met the millennium development goal on sanitation?

It is not surprising, then, that the MDG target to extend access to improved sanitation from 54% of the global population in 2000 to 77% in 2015 has not been met. The target has been missed by almost 700 million people, and 57 countries made "no or limited" progress. Only four developing regions met the target: the Caucasus and central Asia, eastern Asia, northern Africa, and western Asia.

How many people around the world have access to an improved source of drinking water?

Better progress has been made on improving access to water: 91% of the global population uses an improved water source - one that protects water from external contamination - up from 76% in 1990. The number of people who lack access to an improved source of drinking water has fallen below 700 million people - to 663 million - for the first time.

As with sanitation, progress in rural areas trails behind urban areas: eight out of 10 people without improved drinking water sources live in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, while 427 million people gained access during the MDG period, 319 million people still do not have access to clean water, the most of any region.

Which countries met the millennium development goal on water?

So why has there been such a disparity between achieving the MDGs on water and sanitation?

"They should be done hand-in-hand but historically all the effort has gone into water, and sanitation has taken a bit longer to be prioritised," says Brewer. "Combined, UK aid flows to water and sanitation make of 2% of the money donated, but most goes to water. It's also easier for a politician to stand in front of a water well for a photo than a latrine."

The overall picture is mixed, he adds. "It's good that the water goal has been met; millions of people have been reached with access to water and sanitation since 1990, and some countries have made great progress," says Brewer. "But in general, most of the people who have access to water don't have access at home. And is it safe? Is the water affordable and enough for their needs? And again, the poorest countries and the poorest people are being left behind; sub-Saharan African and South Asia are really behind. We need to focus on those people and contribute to making progress in those areas."
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter, and have your say on issues around water in development using #H2Oideas.

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Access to clean water and sanitation around the world - mapped

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Around the world, 946 million people still go to the toilet outside. Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentry, hepatitis A and typhoid.

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Worldwide 780 million people do not have access to an improved water source. An estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation and thats 35% of the world's population

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About 1 in 9 people don’t have access to safe water. Which comes out to be about 844 million people living without safe water.

Source: https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

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Every  90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease
https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

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Waterborne diseases are caused by drinking dirty water. Contaminated water can cause many types of diseases, including Cholera. Other illnesses can occur,
such as Guinea worm disease, Typhoid, and Dysentery . Water related diseases cause 3.4 million deaths each year.

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Salt water is not suited to be used as drinking water, because salt drains water from human bodies.

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Food-Info.net : What is the difference between salt water and freshwater?

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780 million people worldwide don’t have access to clean water.

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Water is the most important resource in the world. Here are 100 amazing facts about water that you may not know.

68.7% of the fresh water on Earth is trapped in glaciers. ¹

30% of fresh water is in the ground. ¹

1.7% of the world's water is frozen and therefore unusable. ¹

Approximately 400 billion gallons of water are used in the United States per day. ¹

Nearly one-half of the water used by Americans is used for thermoelectric power generation. ¹

In one year, the average American residence uses over 100,000 gallons (indoors and outside). ¹

Water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid including sulfuric acid. ¹

The freezing point of water lowers as the amount of salt dissolved in at increases. With average levels of salt, seawater freezes at -2 °C (28.4 °F). ²

About 6,800 gallons of water is required to grow a day's food for a family of four. ³

To create one pint of beer it takes 20 gallons of water. ³

780 million people lack access to an improved water source. ⁴

In just one day, 200 million work hours are consumed by women collecting water for their families. ⁴

1/3 what the world spends on bottled water in one year could pay for projects providing water to everyone in need. ⁴

Unsafe water kills 200 children every hour. ⁴

Water weighs about 8 pounds a gallon. ⁵

It takes 120 gallons of water for one egg. ⁵

A jellyfish and a cucumber are each 95% water. ⁵

70% of the human brain is water. ⁵

80% of all illness in the developing world is water related. ⁶

Up to 50% of water is lost through leaks in cities in the developing world. ⁶

In Nairobi urban poor pay 10 times more for water than in New York. ⁶

In some countries, less than half the population has access to clean water. ⁷

$260 billion is the estimated annual economic loss from poor water and sanitation in developing countries. ⁷

40 billion hours are spent collecting water in Africa alone. ⁷

The average cost for water supplied to a home in the U.S. is about $2.00 for 1,000 gallons, which equals about 5 gallons for a penny. ⁸

A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water. ⁸

Water expands by 9% when it freezes. ⁸

There is about the same amount of water on Earth now as there was millions of years ago. ⁹

The length of the side of a cube which could hold the Earth's estimated total volume of water in km = 1150. ¹⁰

Children in the first 6 months of life consume seven times as much water per pound as the average American adult. ¹¹

Americans drink more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. ¹¹

The United States draws more than 40 billion gallons (151 million liters) of water from the Great Lakes every day-half of which is used for electrical power production. ¹²

85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet. ¹³

Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies). ¹³

Various estimates indicate that, based on business as usual, ~3.5 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or North American. ¹³

Thirty-six states are anticipating water shortages by 2016. ¹⁴

300 tons of water are required to manufacture 1 ton of steel. ¹⁵

1 in 6 gallons of water leak from utility pipes before reaching customers in the US. ¹⁵

American use 5.7 billion gallons per day from toilet flushes. ¹⁵

Refilling a half-liter water bottle 1,740 times with tap water is the equivalent cost of a 99 cent water bottle at a convenience store. ¹⁵

It takes about 12 gallons per day to sustain a human (this figure takes into account all uses for water, like drinking, sanitation and food production). ¹⁶

Each day, we also lose a little more than a cup of water (237 ml) when we exhale it. ¹⁷

By 2025, water withdrawals are predicted to increase by 50 percent in developing countries and 18 percent in developed countries. ¹⁸

By 2025 half the world's people will live in countries with high water stress. ¹⁹

A water-efficient dishwasher uses as little as 4 gallons per cycle but hand washing dishes uses 20 gallons of water. ²⁰

The average family of four uses 180 gallons of water per day outdoors. It is estimated that over 50% is wasted from evaporation, wind, or overwatering. ²⁰

It takes more than twice the amount of water to produce coffee than it does tea. ²¹

Chicken and goat are the least water intensive meats to consume. ²¹

There have been 265 recorded incidences of water conflicts from 3000 BC to 2012. ²¹

Hot water can freeze faster than cold water under some conditions (commonly known as the Mpemba effect). ²²

If the entire world's water were fit into a 4 liter jug, the fresh water available for us would equal only about one tablespoon. ²³

Over 90% of the world's supply of fresh water is located in Antarctica. ²³

Water regulates the Earth's temperature. ²³

On average, 10 gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of your indoor use) is lost to leaks. ²⁴

The average pool takes 22,000 gallons of water to fill. ²⁴

It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bathtub. ²⁵

Flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco, about 700 miles round-trip, could cost you more than 9,000 gallons of water. ²⁵

Water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. ²⁶

Only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people. ²⁶

Three quarters of all Americans live within 10 miles of polluted water. ²⁷

A swimming pool naturally loses about 1,000 gallons (3,785 liters) a month to evaporation. ²⁸

Producing a gallon (3.79 liters) of corn ethanol consumes 170 gallons (644 liters) of water in total, from irrigation to final processing. On the other hand, the water requirement to make a gallon of regular gasoline is just five gallons (19 liters). ²⁸

40% of freshwater withdrawals in the United States are used for agriculture. ²⁹

65% of freshwater withdrawals in China are used for agriculture. ²⁹

Freshwater withdrawals for agriculture exceed 90% in many countries: Cambodia 94%, Pakistan 94%, Vietnam 95%, Madagascar 97%, Iran 92%, Ecuador 92%. ²⁹

If everyone in the US flushed the toilet just one less time per day, we could save a lake full of water about one mile long, one mile wide and four feet deep. ³⁰

If everyone in the US used just one less gallon of water per shower every day, we could save some 85 billion gallons of water per year. ³⁰

Over 42,000 gallons of water (enough to fill a 30×50 foot swimming pool) are needed to grow and prepare food for a typical Thanksgiving dinner for eight. ³¹

An acre of corn will give off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation. ³¹

In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere. ³¹

Water is the most common substance found on earth. ³¹

In Washington state alone, glaciers provide 1.8 trillion liters (470 billion gallons) of water each summer. ³²

Water makes up about 66 percent of the human body. ³³

There are no scientific studies that support the recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water per day. ³³

Drinking too much water can be fatal (known as water intoxication). ³³

There is more fresh water in the atmosphere than in all of the rivers on the planet combined. ³⁴

If all of the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere fell at once, distributed evenly, it would only cover the earth with about an inch of water. ³⁴

It takes seven and a half years for the average American residence to use the same amount of water that flows over the Niagara Falls in one second (750,000 gallons). ³⁴

263 rivers either cross or demarcate international political boundaries. ³⁵

Of the estimated 1.4 billion hectares of crop land worldwide, around 80 percent is rainfed and accounts for about 60 percent of global agricultural output (the other 40% of output is from irrigated crop land). ³⁶

Household leaks can waste more than 1 trillion gallons annually nationwide. That's equal to the annual household water use of more than 11 million homes. ³⁷

Ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day. ³⁷

A leaky faucet that drips at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year. ³⁷

Each cubic foot of Martian soil contains around two pints of liquid water, though the molecules are not freely accessible, but rather bound to other minerals in the soil. ³⁸

There is an estimated 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth. ³⁹

NASA has discovered water in the form of ice on the moon. ⁴⁰

A 2.6 billion year old pocket of water was discovered in a mine, 2 miles below the earth's surface. ⁴¹

Two-thirds of the world's population is projected to face water scarcity by 2025, according to the United Nations. ⁴²

1 pound of beef requires 1,799 gallons of water. ⁴³

1 gallon of wine requires 1,008 gallons of water. ⁴³

A 0.3 pound burger requires 660 gallons of water. ⁴³

1 slice of bread requires 11 gallons of water. ⁴³

1 apple requires 18 gallons of water. ⁴³

1 pound of chocolate requires 3,170 gallons of water. ⁴³

500 sheets of paper requires 1,321 gallons of water. ⁴³

Ground water occurs almost everywhere beneath the land surface. The widespread occurrence of potable ground water is the reason that it is used as a source of water supply by about one-half the population of the United States. ⁴⁴

Hydrologists estimate, according to the National Geographic Society, U.S. groundwater reserves to be at least 33,000 trillion gallons - equal to the amount discharged into the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River in the past 200 years. ⁴⁵

At any given moment, groundwater is 20 to 30 times greater than the amount in all the lakes, streams, and rivers of the United States. ⁴⁵

About 27 trillion gallons of groundwater are withdrawn for use in the U.S. each year. ⁴⁶

The High Plains Aquifer covers eight states and 175,000 miles. ⁴⁶
References:
1. http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/water_trivia_facts.cfm
2. http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/water.html
3. http://www.water.siemens.com/en/about_us/Pages/Water_Footprint.aspx
4. http://blueplanetnetwork.org/water/
5. http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5303137.doc
6. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/road-to-rio/secret-life-drinking-water
7. http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/infographic-world-water-crisis
8. http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/waterfactsoflife.cfm
9. http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/earth/conserve.htm
10. http://www.brita.net/blue_wonder.html
11. http://www.baycountyfl.gov/water/facts.php
12. http://aqua.wisc.edu/waterlibrary/Default.aspx?tabid=74
13. http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures/en/
14. http://www.campusrec.illinois.edu/goGreen/facts.html
15. http://images.fastcompany.com/magazine/154/infographic/water-world.html
16. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/run-out-of-water.htm
17. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/h2o.htm
18. http://www.ifad.org/english/water/key.htm
19. http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/fileadmin/world_water_council/documents_old/Library/WWVision/Chapter3.pdf
20. http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1204/your-daily-dose-of-water/flash.html
21. http://pacinst.org/publication/10-shocking-facts-about-worlds-water/
22. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html
23. http://www.waterwise.org.uk/pages/fun-facts.html
24. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/water-conservation-tips/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_r1p_us_se_w#
25. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/water-conservation-tips/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_r1p_us_se_w#
26. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/
27. https://donate.nationalgeographic.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=1071
28. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-water-wasters/
29. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ER.H2O.FWAG.ZS
30. http://www.sandiego.gov/water/conservation/kids/funfacts.shtml
31. http://www.cleanwaterways.org/kids/fun_facts.html
32. http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/quickfacts.html
33. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-drinking-too-much-water-can-kill/
34. http://www.afcec.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130322-056.pdf
35. http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/publications/atlas/atlas_html/interagree.html
36. http://www.fao.org/ag/save-and-grow/en/5/index.html
37. http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/fixleak.html
38. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/26/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-soil-water
39. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question157.htm
40. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/11/13/water.moon.nasa/index.html?iref=24hours
41. http://www.livescience.com/32028-oldest-water-found-underground.html
42. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123483638138996305
43. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/embedded-water/
44. http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1186/html/gen_facts.html
45. http://www.ngwa.org/Fundamentals/use/Pages/Groundwater-facts.aspx
46. http://www.groundwater.org/get-informed/facts.html

Update: Five facts have been removed as they were pointed out to be inaccurate or redundant. Thanks to the following people who helped us improve this page:

@seametricsinc @MGhydro Wrong: 50% of FW is in Canada and 20% of 'available' FW is in Great Lakes. Also half water supply in 9 countries

- Michael E. Campana (@WaterWired) April 28, 2014

@cbdawson glaciers have 68.7% of global freshwater (listed twice) or 75% (listed once) ... (1/n) @WaterWired @seametricsinc

- Anas Matthæus (@MGhydro) April 28, 2014

@MGhydro @WaterWired @seametricsinc I think that happens a lot. I looked, and it's a quote from a USDA & NPS source, sadly wrong.

- Cian Dawson (@cbdawson) April 28, 2014

Have feedback or suggestion of an interesting water fact? Leave it below in the comments.

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100 Amazing Water Facts You Should Know | Seametrics

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Water is the most important resource in the world. Here are 100 amazing facts about water that you may not know.

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68.7% of earths freshwater is trapped in glaciers.
http://www.seametrics.com/blog/water-facts/

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Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.

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About 5,000 children die each day due to preventable diarrheal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which spread when people use contaminated water for drinking or cooking

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Clean water is essential for life, but most people in the developed world don't think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. In developing nations, however, the search for safe drinking water can be a daily crisis. Millions of people die each year, most of them children, from largely preventable diseases caused by a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation.

Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and the National Geographic Society's freshwater fellow, said freshwater scarcity presents a growing problem to be addressed during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil from June 20 to 22. "It manifests itself in the depletion of groundwater, and the drying up of rivers and lakes upon which people depend for irrigation to grow their food," she said. "The intersection of water scarcity, food security, and a changing climate on top of it all raises a suite of water concerns that urgently need to be addressed."

Much progress is possible. In fact, due to the dedicated efforts of governments and NGOs since the 1992 Earth Summit, safe drinking water has been made available to some 1.7 billion people around the world, with projects ranging from modern piped plumbing to rainwater collection and storage.

But an estimated 880 million people still don't have regular access to clean water. "And we haven't made nearly as much progress on sanitation," Postel said. "Something like 2.7 billion people are without adequate sanitation, so that challenge still looms very large." Policymakers will struggle to lower both numbers even as the planet's population rises by an expected three billion over the next 50 to 75 years.

About 5,000 children die each day due to preventable diarrheal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which spread when people use contaminated water for drinking or cooking. A lack of water for personal hygiene leads to the spread of totally preventable ailments like trachoma, which has blinded some six million people.

Water woes also trap many low-income families in a cycle of poverty and poor education-and the poorest suffer most from lack of access to water. People who spend much of their time in ill health, caring for sick children, or laboriously collecting water at distances averaging 3.75 miles (6 kilometers) a day are denied educational and economic opportunities to better their lives.

Competition can be fierce for this precious commodity. Agriculture claims the lion's share of freshwater worldwide, soaking up some 70 percent, and industrial uses consume another 22 percent. Watersheds and aquifers don't respect political borders and nations don't always work together to share common resources-so water can be a frequent source of international conflict as well.

Day-by-day demand keeps growing, further draining water sources, from great rivers to underground aquifers. "We're going deeper into debt on our groundwater use," Postel said, "and that has very significant impacts for global water security. The rate of groundwater depletion has doubled since 1960."

Some of Earth's groundwater is fossil water, created when Earth's climate was far different. Today such water is as finite as petroleum. Other aquifers are renewable. "But we're pumping many of them out faster than precipitation is recharging them," Postel explained. "This is the case underneath the breadbasket of India, underneath the wheat and cornfields on the plains of north China, under California's Central Valley. We need to bring withdrawals into balance with recharge."

Humanity's growing thirst also poses a major problem for aquatic ecosystems. "When we take water from rivers, floodplains, and watersheds, those ecosystems bear the brunt of water scarcity and begin to be degraded or disappear," she said. "And that also creates a cost to us, not just to nature, because we also depend upon those ecosystems."

The silver lining, Postel noted, is that many opportunities exist to use the water we do have more productively. Change begins with more efficient management of water resources.

"Seventy percent of all the water we use globally is for agriculture, so that's where we first have to become a lot more efficient through methods like drip irrigation and growing crops that are more suitable to the local climate," Postel said. "We still have too few incentives for farmers to use water more efficiently. Farmers are good businesspeople; they respond to incentives that affect their bottom line."

The United National General Assembly has recognized "the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights." Making that right become a universal reality, and providing each person on the planet with affordable access to the 20 to 50 liters of daily water required to sustain life, is a clear goal for the decades ahead.

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Sustainable Earth: Water - National Geographic

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Clean water is essential for life, but most people in the developed world don't think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. In developing nations, however, the search for safe drinking water can be a daily crisis.

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Every 90 second a child dies from a water related disease

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The power of water

Water connects every aspect of life. Access to safe water and sanitation can quickly turn problems into potential - empowering people with time for school and work, and contributing to improved health for women, children, and families around the world.

Today, 2.2 billion people - 1 in 4 - lack access to safe water and 3.5 billion people - 2 in 5 - lack access to a safe toilet. These are the people we empower.
Learn more about the global water crisis > Learn more about the global sanitation crisis >

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The Water Crisis: Shortage, Problems & Solutions | Water.org

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Explore the global water crisis, water shortage, and lack of water affecting billions. Learn how Water.org is tackling these water problems to transform lives.

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Source: http://www.blueplanet.nsw.edu.au/mi--water--distribution-of-water/.aspx

On top of the minimal amount of freshwater sources that are in the Earth (only about 3%). Most of it is incapsulated in either glaciers (68.7%) or underground (30.1). Which leaves only about .3% of freshwater coming from sustainable sources such as lakes, swamps, and rivers.

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Half of the worlds hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water related diseases.
https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/water_stats

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Almost4 million people die from water related illnesses

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4500 children die everyday from lack of clean water

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"For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it." - Marcus Samuelsson

What can we say about water than haven't been said before? "It's important to our lives" would be the most cliche answer there is. But it would be a correct one. Water is a crucial factor in almost every aspect of our lives, or rather, of the lives of every living things on Earth. From the largest of biome, to the smallest of living cell, water is always there, sustaining life as it always do. Therefore, it's only logical that something as useful as water should be conserve for long-time usage.

However, that's not the case with us humans. If you can stop just for a moment and have a look at the video above, you would see how have people wasted water on a daily basis and the consequences behind. Also, corporations releases thousands of gallons of industrial wastes in streams and river every day, turning perfectly good water source into toxic streams of death. Wasting water, polluting water, we are literally destroying the thing that's keeping us alive everyday. Why do people do it? What's the result of this course of action? Who does it affect? And how can we stop it? That's what I'm going to talk about today.

Why do people waste water? In my opinion, it has to do with how human reacts to abundance. Whenever we have a lot of something to use, we don't usually worry about how much is left or how effectively we use it until we run low on it. If someone have a lot of time to do HW, he might wasted his time surfing the Internet until the last minute. Likewise, we don't usually think about how much water we are wasting because we have so much of it, or at least that's what we thought. If you want some water, you can just turn the tap and there it is. So because water is so easy to get in our daily lives, we are caught in this illusion of abundance, thinking that since water is so accessible, there must be a lot of it, so it's ok if we wasted a little bit. It's this illogical thinking that puts California in the position it's in today. (click here to read about the California drought)

What's the result of wasting and polluting water? There are 769 million people in the world who don't have access to clean water right now. That's one tenth of the entire human population. And then there's people who use water as if they have access to an infinite amount of it. But soon, as Californians have experienced, their water resource runs out, and they suffered from it. Water is such an important factor in our life, but because it's so easy to access, we sometimes forgot just how precious they truly are. Only 21% of Earth's water is drinkable, and that amount of water have are used by almost every living things on Earth. What if one day, we wasted our last drop and pollute our last river, what would happen then? I'll tell you what happen: every living thing will die.

How can we stop it? One might think the answer is simple and straightforward: Stop wasting and polluting water. But just saying that means nothing. People aren't going to stop wasting water, factories aren't going to stop polluting rivers, and companies aren't going to pay for water cleaning systems just because we said so. We have to do something to convince people that shortage in clean water is a serious problem, that wasting water is a luxury we can't afford and polluting water is a sin we can't recover from. So, if you truly think that shortage in clean water is a serious world problem, go out there and do what you can to stop people from wasting and polluting it.

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"For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it." - Marcus Samuelsson What can we say about water than haven't been said before? "It's important to our lives" would be the most cliche answer there is.

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844M people don’t have access to clean or safe water

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The power of water

Water connects every aspect of life. Access to safe water and sanitation can quickly turn problems into potential - empowering people with time for school and work, and contributing to improved health for women, children, and families around the world.

Today, 2.2 billion people - 1 in 4 - lack access to safe water and 3.5 billion people - 2 in 5 - lack access to a safe toilet. These are the people we empower.
Learn more about the global water crisis > Learn more about the global sanitation crisis >

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The Water Crisis: Shortage, Problems & Solutions | Water.org

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Explore the global water crisis, water shortage, and lack of water affecting billions. Learn how Water.org is tackling these water problems to transform lives.

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Worldwide, 780 million people do not have access to an improved water source * 2.

Worldwide, millions of people are infected with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), many of which are water and/or hygiene-related.

An estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation (more than 35% of the world’s population) 1, 3.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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As the nation's health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health, safety, and security threats.

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Over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth is found in icecaps and glaciers,  just over 30 percent is found in the ground. Only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes and rivers

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Fresh water lacks the buoyancy of salt water. If you swim in a freshwater lake, you’ll find that you will have to work harder to float on the water’s surface than you would have to if you tried to float in the ocean.

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Salt Water vs Fresh Water
It would be easy to say that the difference between salt water and fresh water is all about whether there is salt in the water. While it makes sense, that's not really accurate. Salinity, or the density of salt, is much higher in salt water, but fresh water is not completely devoid of salt.

The salts that are found in salt water, as well as brackish water (which is a mixture of salt and fresh water), are more diverse than the salt most of us have on our dining room table. The water is composed of various elements, and as those elements break down, they become electrically charged ions. These particles are better electricity conductors. This means that electricity flows through salt water more readily and efficiently than it does through fresh water.

True fresh water bodies are much rarer than salt water bodies. Most of the water in the world contains high enough levels of salt to prevent it from being classified as fresh water.

Salt water is literally dangerous to drink. Being stranded in the middle of the ocean carries a high risk of dehydration, because drinking the salt water will take more liquid from the muscles and blood stream than going without drinking anything at all.

Fresh water lacks the buoyancy of salt water. If you swim in a freshwater lake, you'll find that you will have to work harder to float on the water's surface than you would have to if you tried to float in the ocean. The Dead Sea has such a high salt level that many find it difficult to wade out past their hips, because they start to float!

The ecological differences are interesting. Fish, amphibians, and plants generally can not live in both types of water. Their natural development lends them to their preferred salt content level. Taking a fresh water fish and putting him in a salt water tank is about as effective as leaving him on the beach! He won't be able to survive. There are alligators, however, that have adapted to fresh and salt water environments.

Summary:

1. The salinity between salt and fresh water is significant.

2. Fresh water makes up only about 1% of all the planet's water bodies.

3. Salt water can be deadly if a person drinks it.

4. Salt water offers much more buoyancy than fresh water.

5. The ecosystems are completely different when it comes to most species of organisms in fresh water and salt water.

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Difference Between Salt Water and Fresh Water

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Salt Water vs Fresh Water It would be easy to say that the difference between salt water and fresh water is all about whether there is salt in the water. While it makes sense, that's not really accurate. Salinity, or the density of salt, is much higher in salt water, but fresh water is not completely devoid of salt.

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95.1% of all water is salt water

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1 in 10 people do not have access to clean water.

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1. 1 in 10 people lack access to safe water.

In 2015, 663 million people, or 1 in 10, lacked access to safe drinking water sources. Nearly one-half of all people who are forced to rely on unsafe drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.

Preventable waterborne diseases wreak havoc on communities by causing death, wide spread infection, and cognitive and physical impairment among the young; it is a staggering waste of human potential.

3. Globally 1/3 of all schools lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

4. At any one time, one-half of the world's hospital beds are occupied with patients suffering from waterborne diseases.

5. As announced by the World Economic Forum in January 2015, the water crisis is the #1 global risk based on impact to society (as a measure of devastation).

Many organizations are attempting to find solutions to this problem, from drilling wells and building slow sand filters, to creating point-of-use technologies, such as household filters and disinfectant tablets. PureMadi is proud to be one of these organizations; we are putting the solution in the hands of communities by building ceramic water filter factories, employing locals, and enabling them to produce and distribute ceramic water filters that will purify a family's water for 3-4 years.

References
World Health Organization and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). (2015) Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2015 Update and MDG Assessment.
World Economic Forum. (2015). Global Risks 2015 Report.
Water.org http://static.water.org/pdfs/Water%20Crisis%205-10.pdf

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1. 1 in 10 people lack access to safe water. In 2015, 663 million people, or 1 in 10, lacked access to safe drinking water sources. Nearly one-half of all people who are forced to rely on unsafe drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa. 2.

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1 in 9 people on this EARTH have access to drinking water, and 844 million don’t have safe (clean) drinking water.

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The power of water

Water connects every aspect of life. Access to safe water and sanitation can quickly turn problems into potential - empowering people with time for school and work, and contributing to improved health for women, children, and families around the world.

Today, 2.2 billion people - 1 in 4 - lack access to safe water and 3.5 billion people - 2 in 5 - lack access to a safe toilet. These are the people we empower.
Learn more about the global water crisis > Learn more about the global sanitation crisis >

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The Water Crisis: Shortage, Problems & Solutions | Water.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore the global water crisis, water shortage, and lack of water affecting billions. Learn how Water.org is tackling these water problems to transform lives.

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Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water related disease.
https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

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Over 1.5 billion don’t have acces to clean water

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In many parts of the world  water isn’t available all day, every day. In some regions of South Africa, the water supply in 60% of houses has a water system that can be interrupted for more than 2 days.

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How many people have access to clean and safe water? Where do they get it from, and how much do they pay for it? A new report by the World Health Organisation/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme delves into data on drinking water from the last 17 years to give a detailed view of the state of access to drinking water today.

It also examines how the current situation matches up to the vision for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water - set out by the sustainable development goals (SDGs). It considers gaps in the data and what we still need to know to achieve universal access.

1 | Billions of people have gained access to water, but huge inequalities remain

Since 1990, 2.6 billion people have gained access to an "improved" drinking water source, one that is designed to protect against contamination. But in 2015, 663 million people - one in 10 - still drank water from unprotected sources. Huge inequalities persist between and within countries; almost half of people drinking water from unprotected sources live in sub-Saharan Africa, eight in 10 live in rural areas, and there are large gaps between the richest and the poorest.
In 41 countries, a fifth of people drink water from a source that is not protected from contamination
The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to achieve access for everyone, but we need more and better data on drinking water to ensure no one is left behind.

2 | Collecting water is still a major burden, especially in sub-Saharan Africa

In most countries, the majority of people spend less than 30 minutes collecting water, or have a piped supply within their home. But in some regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa, many people spend more than 30 minutes - and some more than an hour - on each trip to collect water. This burden still falls mainly on women and girls - they are responsible for this task in eight in 10 households that don't have a piped supply.
Mongolia is the only country where men and boys have primary responsibility for collecting water
Reducing collection times and increasing the number of people who have water sources within their home will be crucial in achieving other goals related to poverty, health, education and gender equality.

3 | In many parts of the world water is not available all day, every day

In many countries, households are asked whether their supply of water meets their needs, or for how many hours water is available each day. Existing data shows this availability varies widely between and within countries.
In some provinces of South Africa, water supply in 60% of households has been interrupted for two days or more
In South Africa in 2014, a fifth of households with municipal piped water had interruptions that lasted for more than two days. This was three times higher in some regions of the country. Few countries have water available continuously, but in many parts of the world a less than 24-hour supply is still considered sufficient. Countries use a wide range of different measures to assess availability and these must match up so that comparisons of service levels can be made across countries and over time.
In Nepal, 91% of the population drink from an improved water source, but E.coli has still been detected
4 | Some sources protect against contamination, but it still might not be safe to drink the water

To be considered "safe", a source of drinking water must be free from pathogens and high levels of harmful substances. Globally, the main health concern is faecal contamination, which is identified by the presence of bacteria such as E.coli. In many places, a water point is designed to protect against contamination, but the water from it might still have traces of E.coli - the groundwater may be contaminated by faulty latrines, or the containers people use to carry and store water may contain traces of the bacteria.

We need to invest more in low-cost techniques to test the quality of water people drink, especially for those who are not connected to regulated piped networks.
In Tanzania, 10% of the population spend more than 5% of their expenditure on drinking water
5 | People spend different amounts on water, but we don't know what they think is affordable
Tom Slaymaker is a senior statistics and monitoring specialist and Robert Bain is a statistics and monitoring specialist at Unicef. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter, and have your say on issues around water in development using #H2Oideas. Download the full report here.
Thanks to income and spending surveys, we know what people pay for water and sanitation varies from country to country. Data do not always capture the full costs of such services, such as the price to drill a borehole or get a household connection in the first place. We don't know if paying for water and sanitation will prevent people from getting access to them in the first place, or whether people think the amount they pay already is affordable.

Recording and comparing spending will be an important step towards working out whether drinking water services are affordable.

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Access to drinking water around the world - in five infographics

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Billions of people have gained access to clean and safe drinking water since 1990, but data show that huge inequalities remain

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Out of all the water on earth, only 3% is the water that we drink. Of all the freshwater on Earth, only about 0.3 percent is contained in rivers and lakes—yet rivers and lakes are not only the water we are most familiar with, it is also where most of the water we use in our everyday lives exists.

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1/3 of what the world spends on bottled water per year would pay to provide water to everyone in need.

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safe drinking water programs projects funding funders ngo wash platform collaboration transparency clean water access

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Why Water? Because creating access to safe drinking water is the most powerful way to improve the world.

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97.5% of earths water is salt water and 2% of that if frozen and only 2.5% is fresh

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It is easier to float objects in saltwater than in fresh water.

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Comparing the properties of fresh and salt water

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float objects in seawater than in fresh water. Many humans can "float" in seawater but not fresh water. The reason is that water with salt in it, is more dense. So objects that cannot float in fresh water may be able to float in seawater.

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FreshWater vs SaltWater
97% Earths water is Salt water And 2.4% of Earths water is frozen. Out of that 2.4% only .015% is above ground.
2% percent of Earths water is rivers.
11% of earths water is Swamps

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97.5% Of water on the Earth is salt water and 2.5 of water on Earth is fresh water. And only 0.3% Of fresh water is in liquid dorm on the surface.

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Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases

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Around the world, 946 million people still go to the toilet outside. Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentry, hepatitis A and typhoid. A huge global effort has been focused on reducing these numbers and new data from the WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme, which has measured the progress made on access to drinking water and sanitation since 1990, shows that there have been improvements in certain areas.

Eritrea's neighbour Ethiopia has achieved the largest decrease in the proportion of the population practising open defecation, from 92% in 1990 to 29% in 2015.

"Ethiopia has made a concerted effort to reduce open defecation rates over the past five years," says Tim Brewer, Wateraid's policy analyst on monitoring and accountability. "The government came up with a plan of action to get everyone in the country to stop practising open defecation, and made sure that donors contributing to the sanitation sector also followed the same plan. This hasn't been the case in Eritrea, where there has been conflict."

Brewer says the two countries are a good example that sanitation is not only down to environmental factors, but also to whether governments are willing to invest time and resources into making change happen.

Nine in 10 people who practice open defecation live in rural areas. But at the current rates of reduction it is estimated that open defecation will not be eliminated among the poorest in rural areas by 2030 - one of the targets of the sustainable development goals.

How many people around the world have access to improved sanitation facilities?

Among the world's city-dwellers, 82% of people now use an improved sanitation facility, defined as one that hygienically separates human waste from human contact. Only 51% of the global rural population has access to such facilities.

Globally it is estimated that 2.4 billion people still lack improved sanitation. They live primarily in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In sub-Saharan Africa rapid population growth matched by insufficient progress means that numbers without access to sanitation have increased since 1990 to 17% of the population.

Which countries met the millennium development goal on sanitation?

It is not surprising, then, that the MDG target to extend access to improved sanitation from 54% of the global population in 2000 to 77% in 2015 has not been met. The target has been missed by almost 700 million people, and 57 countries made "no or limited" progress. Only four developing regions met the target: the Caucasus and central Asia, eastern Asia, northern Africa, and western Asia.

How many people around the world have access to an improved source of drinking water?

Better progress has been made on improving access to water: 91% of the global population uses an improved water source - one that protects water from external contamination - up from 76% in 1990. The number of people who lack access to an improved source of drinking water has fallen below 700 million people - to 663 million - for the first time.

As with sanitation, progress in rural areas trails behind urban areas: eight out of 10 people without improved drinking water sources live in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, while 427 million people gained access during the MDG period, 319 million people still do not have access to clean water, the most of any region.

Which countries met the millennium development goal on water?

So why has there been such a disparity between achieving the MDGs on water and sanitation?

"They should be done hand-in-hand but historically all the effort has gone into water, and sanitation has taken a bit longer to be prioritised," says Brewer. "Combined, UK aid flows to water and sanitation make of 2% of the money donated, but most goes to water. It's also easier for a politician to stand in front of a water well for a photo than a latrine."

The overall picture is mixed, he adds. "It's good that the water goal has been met; millions of people have been reached with access to water and sanitation since 1990, and some countries have made great progress," says Brewer. "But in general, most of the people who have access to water don't have access at home. And is it safe? Is the water affordable and enough for their needs? And again, the poorest countries and the poorest people are being left behind; sub-Saharan African and South Asia are really behind. We need to focus on those people and contribute to making progress in those areas."
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter, and have your say on issues around water in development using #H2Oideas.

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Access to clean water and sanitation around the world - mapped

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Around the world, 946 million people still go to the toilet outside. Eritrea is top of the list, with 77% of its population practising open defecation, a practice which can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, and the spread of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentry, hepatitis A and typhoid.

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844 million people are without safe water.
https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

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97.5% of the Earth is Salt. 2.5% is fresh, and only 0.3% of the fresh water is liquid and on the surface of earth.

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Water is distributed across earth. Most water in the Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from the world ocean's saline seawater, while freshwater accounts for only 2.5% of the total. Because the oceans that cover roughly 78% of the area of the Earth reflect blue light, the Earth appears blue from space, and is often referred to as the blue planet and the Pale Blue Dot .

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All living things share less than 1% of total water on earth
http://www.cobblearning.net/axtearthscience6/files/2014/02/Distribution-of-Water-on-Earth-Blog-2ammv9v.pptx