In case you didn’t know, and I didn’t until I read an email from the Surfrider Foundation . . .
Tomorrow is World Water Day!
I was aware that public access to fresh water and sanitation were huge problems, in many nations. I just never realized how overwhelming the numbers really are.
Nearly 1 billion people lack daily access to clean water.
1,000,000,000 – that’s a lot of zeros and way too many people!
The statistics show this crisis effects almost 1 out of every 8 people on our planet.
Many of these 3,500,000 deaths result from the use of contaminated water.
Much of it contaminated because 2.5 billion
(2,500,000,000)
people do not have access to a toilet.
Compare that figure, to the fact, that worldwide there are
5.9 billion cellular phone subscriptions.
It would seem that twice as many people can
“Reach Out and Touch Someone,”
as can go potty in sanitary conditions.
As often seems the case, children bear the brunt,
of this world crisis.
Dying, from disease, at the rate of 1 every 20 seconds.
3 every minute.
15 every 5 minutes.
Spend 5 of those minutes in the shower, and we use more water
than many people have access to, in an entire day.
Two Hundred Million Hours each day:
that’s how many work hours are spent, by women and children, collecting water for their families.
Needless to say, numbers associated with the world’s water crisis are staggering, depressing and almost incomprehensible.
There is no one magic answer to solve this problem. Many people and organizations are trying desperately to make progress against a situation that is extremely difficult.
Realistically, my feeble attempts to save a gallon of water, here and there, won’t make a difference, in this crisis. Honestly, I don’t know how many of us will have to fix a dripping faucet or let our lawns go an extra day without water, in order to see change.
I guess, if I take anything away from World Water Day 2012, it would be that I’m so very fortunate to even have clean water, it comes out of a faucet, my toilet works and maybe most importantly:
Just because I have it now – doesn’t mean I always will. So do my part to not waste it!
Time to hop off!
Notes:
Data for water facts from http://water.org/
Cell phone usage data from http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats
These folks just rock! http://www.surfrider.org/
I knew it was bad but this is just unbelievable!
Love,
Kathi
I know. Apparently, the one figure that has improved over the past decade is that 1 child used to die every 15 seconds as opposed to now, where it’s every 20 seconds. It shows that change can happen. Unfortunately, the poorer you are, the more it costs to access water. And then of course, you have to get through whoever or whatever group is running that area of a country, to finally help the people. It’s really a tragic legacy we are leaving to the next generation.
The crisis is much worse where the population is most dense, such as in China, India and other Asian countries. Terribly sad.
i knew it was bad just not this bad