The Challenge
Dirty water, disease & death
Source: “Water for Life – Making it Happen” UNICEF & WHO, 2005
Lack of safe drinking water has been called the silent humanitarian crisis. A few statistics below highlight the gravity of the issue:
- An estimated 1.1 billion people, 18 per cent of the world’s population, lack access to clean drinking water, and nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease.
- Every week an estimated 42,000 people die from diseases related to low quality drinking water and lack of sanitation. Over 90 per cent of them occur in children under the age of 5.
- At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne-related diseases.
- Poor health resulting from inadequate water and sanitation robs the children of schooling and the adults of earning power, a situation aggravated for the women and girls by the daily chore of collecting water.
- Only one per cent of the total water resources on earth is available for human use. While 70 per cent of the world’s surface is covered by water, 97.5 per cent of that is salt water. Of the remaining 2.5 per cent that is freshwater, almost 68.7 per cent is frozen in ice caps and glaciers.
- Water use increased six-fold during the 20th Century, more than twice the rate of population growth. While water consumption in industrialized countries runs as high as 380 litres/capita/day in the United States (USGS, 2004) and 129 litres/capita/day in Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2000), in developing countries 20-30 litres/capita/day are considered enough to meet basic human needs.
The Effects of the Water Crisis by Age
Source: “Water for Life – Making it Happen” UNICEF & WHO, 2005
0-4 Years – The Toll of Child Mortality
Over 90% of deaths from diarrheal diseases in the developing world today occur in children under five years old. Improved drinking water and sanitation services and better hygiene behavior – especially by mothers – are crucial in reducing child mortality.
5-14 Years – Lost Schooling is a Life Sentence
Children, especially girls, are missing school because neither their homes nor their schools have adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities. Disease, domestic chores, and lack of separate school latrines for girls and boys keep school attendance figures down and impair the absent pupils’ future chances of escaping from their families’ poverty.
15-59 Years – Productivity gains can more than pay for improved services
Hundreds of millions of African, Asian and Latin American families are paying every day in lost income for their lack of access to improved drinking water and sanitation services. Women’s physical and financial burdens are often greater than men’s. The good news is that community projects designed by women and men together bring economic returns far greater than the capital investment and recurrent costs.
Want to know more? Additional resources on water issues are available in the AC Download Center.
The Response
- UNICEF & the WHO declared 2005-2015 as “The International Decade for Action – Water for Life.”
- Target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation is fundamental to achieving all other MDGs.
- A WHO Cost-Benefit Analysis showed that every US$1 invested in improved drinking water and sanitation services can yield economic benefits of US$4 to US$34 depending on the region. The economic benefits of household water treatment – such as the application of chlorination, solar disinfection, filters or combined flocculation and chlorination powders – can yield benefits of US$ 5 to 140 per US$ 1 invested.
- WHO has estimated that productivity gains from a reduction in diarrhoeal disease if the MDG drinking water and sanitation target is reached will exceed US$ 700 million a year.
Aqua Clara
By providing a source of clean, safe drinking water to those in need, we can prevent waterborne disease and circumvent the need to treat it. For those without access to doctors and antibiotics, this prevention is literally life saving.
AC technology is specifically designed to function in areas where water purification is needed most. To learn more about the Aqua Clara Water Purifier, click here.
