The water problem worldwide

          Today, one of the biggest challenges in the world, is providing access to safe drinking water everywhere. Nearly one billion people lack affordable access to clean water. If they are lucky to be near a source of water, mothers and/or children must walk for miles and then carry it back to their homes by foot only for it to last them a couple days at most, however the water is not guaranteed to be clean and the chances of them catching life threatening diseases are high.  3.4 Million people die each year from water related diseases SUCH AS:
The majority of illness is caused by fecal mater (*****) Half of the hospital beds in the world are occupied by patients suffering from
diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, 90% of the deaths due to diarrheal diseases are children under 5 years old,
mostly in developing countries, inadequate
sanitation and poor hygiene, 88% of global cases of diarrhea is estimated to be attributable to unsafe
drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene

Good health comes hand and hand with hygiene and ------


There are solutions that work, but not every community has access to them or the financial means to afford them.

The Good NewsWe know how to bring people clean water and improved
sanitation. We’re not waiting for a magic cure. And the solutions are simple and
cost-effective. On average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation
provides an economic return of eight US dollars. For only $25, Water.org can
bring someone access to clean water for life.




More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.3

According to Estimated with data from Diarhhoea: Why children are still dying 
  and what can be done
. UNICEF, WHO 2009, Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.1

Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.6

780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.2

"[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns." 7

An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.7



Resource LinksLook for more facts in our collection of Water Resource Links.
  1. Estimated with data from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation. (2012). Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2012 Update.
  2. World Health Organization (WHO). (2008). Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health; Updated Table 1: WSH deaths by region, 2004.
  3. International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2011). The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures
  4. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). (2011). State of World Population 2011, People and possibilities in a world of 7 billion
  5. UN Water. (2008). Tackling a global crisis: International Year of Sanitation 2008
  6. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2006). Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
  7. Map data sourced from "Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2010 Update." WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.
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