Water facts and figures

When the well is dry, they know the worth of water —Benjamin Franklin, 1824

Water plays a vital role in nearly every function of the human body, protecting the immune system, the body’s natural defenses, and helping to remove waste matter. In today’s technologically advanced world, more children die every single day from dirty water than from any other disease. Simply preventable diarrhoeal disease claims the life of a child every 15 seconds. More people on this planet die from water-related illness than any other cause, including war in the last 2 decades and HIV/AIDs.

The figures are staggering…. on Earth today…

• 884 million people (one in five people) do not have access to improved water sources;
• 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation facilities;
• 1.5 million children under 5 years of age die each year (as reported in 2010), as a result of water and sanitation related diseases;
• A child born in the developed world consumes 30 to 50 times as much water resources as one in the developing world.

Breaking news, October 2010: UN Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time that the human right to water and sanitation is legally binding!

“By a text on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, the General Assembly expressed deep concern that some 884 million people were without access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lacked access to basic sanitation. Bearing in mind the commitment to fully achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it expressed alarm that 1.5 million children under five years old died each year as a result of water and sanitation related diseases, acknowledging that safe, clean drinking water and sanitation were integral to the realization of all human rights.” Click here to learn more: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/RightToWaterAndSanitation.aspx

Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 189 countries in 1989, specifically calls for “the provision of (access to) adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water.” Further, in November 2002, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15, added that: “The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, reduce the risk of water-related disease and provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements”.

From an economic perspective, the cost-benefit associated with the provision of water is also quite compelling. If everyone in the world had access to basic water and sanitation services, the reduction in diarrhoeal disease alone would save the health sector $11.6 billion in treatment costs and people would gain over 5.6 billion productive days per year. When the potential economic gains of providing basic, low-cost water and sanitation facilities are added together, the developing world could save as much as $263 billion a year. Furthermore, women and girls are traditionally responsible for their family’s water supply and often must spend hours every day fetching water. As a result they miss out on opportunities for education, productive activities and leisure time. Click here more information: WHO study on the costs and benefit of water and sanitation improvements at the global level.

Why is safe drinking water and sanitation for every child so important?

Every year, unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene cause diarrhoea, killing more than 1.5 million children under the age of five. Hundreds of millions of children, mostly in developing countries, do not use drinking water from improved sources or are without basic sanitation—yet these foundations for healthy living are taken for granted by the majority of people on the planet.

What about drinking water quality; when is water safe to drink?

In many areas of the world, the water from improved supplies (mostly water from handpumps and taps) is not always safe to drink! Many household have to carry their drinking water from taps or pumps outside their homes, then store the water inside their homes. Often, safe drinking water gets polluted when it is collected, transported, stored and retrieved, making it unsafe when people drink it. This is called ‘micro-biological’ contamination of drinking water, and it is by far the greatest water quality concern. In some areas, other contaminants, such as arsenic and fluoride, can also make water unsafe to drink.