MB Civic

97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water
Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use.
< 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis. http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html Improving lives one drop at a time. If you live in a place where clean drinking water is taken for granted, it can be difficult to grasp the scarcity of clean water and adequate sanitation. Worldwide: 1 in 5 people on Earth have no access to safe water to drink. 5,000 children die every day as a result. One third of the world’s people lack adequate sanitation. For much of the world, effective hygiene is either impractical or not understood. The consequences of these three deficiencies together — lack of clean water, hygiene, and sanitation — are devastating. Worldwide, millions are sickened by diarrheal disease and weakened by parasites, and 15,000 die each and every day. But it doesn’t stop there. When children are sick, they can’t go to school. Often a mother or sibling must stay with a sick child — and she in turn is unable to work or go to school. Recurring waterborne diseases lock families, communities, and nations into a cycle of endless poverty and lack of opportunity. http://purewaterfortheworld.org/ 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people. 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease. The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. People living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city. An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. http://water.org/ While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 %. This population growth - coupled with industrialization and urbanization - will result in an increasing demand for water and will have serious consequences on the environment. http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=25 As demand for freshwater soars, planetary supplies are becoming unpredictable. Existing technologies could avert a global water crisis, but they must be implemented soon http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=facing-the-freshwater-crisis Americans consume 99 gallons of water daily. And one out of six gallons served by U.S. water utilities finds its way back to the ground, leaking out of pipes or otherwise wasted. We protect only 35 percent of the upland areas that secure delivery of freshwater services downstream. An ever-worsening water crisis demands that we respond with combined water efficiency and ecosystem management solutions to maintain freshwater species and services. Failure is simply not an option — at the current rate, we will degrade the remaining 11 percent of ecosystems that provide us with fresh water services by 2050. http://www.conservation.org/learn/freshwater/Pages/fresh_water.aspx?gclid=CPO-wrippa4CFQnd4AodSEm2Sw Today, one of the largest concerns around the world is the lack of freshwater for drinking and cooking. It is estimated that over one billion people, or about one-sixth of the world's population, does not have access to fresh water; of these one billion, the vast majority are living in developing nations… http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/larsenst/ 894 million people lack access to safe water At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease. The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. While basic needs vary, the minimum threshold of water use is 20 litres per day. Factoring in bathing and laundry needs would increase this to 50 litres per day. Most of the nearly 1 billion people lacking access to clean water live on about 5 litres of water a day. That’s about one tenth of the amount needed to flush a standard toilet. A five minute shower using a standard showerhead uses approximately 100 litres of water. Installing a low-flow version would help reduce water usage to 35 litres for the same five minute shower. http://ryanswell.ca/learn-the-facts/facts-about-water-and-sanitation.aspx