Water: we once thought it was an endless natural resource. Now we know better.
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.
Photo: Julien Harneis
3. 43% of water related deaths are due to diarrhea.
4. 98% of water related deaths occur in the developing world.
5. Unsafe water is the biggest killer of children under five; around 90% of all diarrheal deaths are in this age group.
6. In Sub-Saharan Africa women spend on average 16 hours a week collecting water.
7. A typical individual in the United States uses 500 litres of water each day.
8. The recommended daily water requirement for sanitation, bathing, cooking and consumption is approximately 50 litres per person per day.
9. Over 1 billion people use less than 6 litres of water per day.
Photo: laihiu
10. A typical individual in Gambia uses just 4.5 litres of water a day.
11. Lack of access to clean water and sanitation has claimed more lives through disease than any war through guns.
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.
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25 Comments... join the discussion!
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Excellent presentation, Matt; I didn’t even start thinking about these things until I spent some time in Thailand.
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So, so many of the world’s problems come down to this issue. Water is THE #1 need of all humans, and the fact that for hundreds of millions of us this need is not met is beyond tragic.
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Great round-up of stats! Over the past year I’ve been looking closely at my water bill and am shocked at how many gallons I use! So I have been trying to be very conscious of my water use to whittle that number down more each month. Thanks for the reminder of how precious water is!
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Matt, great article! I think a lot of people in the U.S. aren’t really aware of the problems that are arising due to water shortages. It’s a good reason to drink tap water instead of buying it bottled.
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Might I suggest a little work in editing? For example, #24 and #34 are essentially the same statistic, except that the number differs by (over) 100,000,000 people. There are several other examples in which the same statistic is essentially reused several times throughout the list.
It’s a vitally important topic, so I laud you for writing the list. I think it will have greater impact if it doesn’t seem “padded”.
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Great facts and statistics. I learned some of this when I was in third grade I think, but this really puts a human face on the problem.
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Mike, you just read all this the fact that most bothers you is that the editing was not sufficent! I think you missed the point a little!
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Hey, great article! FYI, the link in number 16 seems broken.
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The first pic is taken in Vietnam, right?? So sad!
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Hello,
We run a portal for all water/sanitation related topics in India.
Here are some facts/case studies related to drinking water -http://www.indiawaterportal.org/tt/dwm/
You could also follow our blog on -
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog
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This is all very sad.It seems that a lot of the facts are related to America. Is it really that wasteful of a country. I hope not, or they really need to do something. If someone can live of 4 litres of water Im sure they can do a little better.
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How do we know that these “facts” arn’t just made up?
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its good to know about the water shortage in the world thank you
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water is good
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hey, it’s a wonderful & heart touching true article Matt. Thanks for such a nice one!
I believe this article wiil inspire many people to conserve water.↵ -
well i think that artical will help those people out a lot because some people have compasionate hearts and feel its thier obligation to give these people what they need but some are heartless and cold blooded adn dont help if they can so thanks for this artical
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your article was fabulous. it should be published in a newspaper. we waste so much of water without knowing it’s value and deprive those who are in dire need of it. your article will certainly help realise people the value of the water that they use callously.
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why are all these people non-white?
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Because they all live in places where water shortages and water cleanliness problems are prominent.
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