“Access to clean water should be enshrined in international law as a human right.”
-- Mikhail Gorbachev, the former President of the Soviet Union
At any given time, close to half of all people living in developing countries suffer from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits. (UNICEF)
1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water. 2.6 billion people do not have access to modern sanitation and have to think about where their waste will go. (Safe Water).
5,000 children die each day as a result of water-borne diseases in developing areas of the world. (Safe Water)
It is estimated that diarrhoeal diseases that result from contaminated water kill about 2 million children and cause about 900 million episodes of illness each year (Safe Water)
Approximately 443 million school days are lost each year from water-related illness. (United Nations Human Development Report)
Only 20% of countries in the world have been designated as having safe water supplies where water borne infections are non-existent. (Safe Water)
12% of the world’s population uses 85% of its water – and these 12 percent do not live in developing countries. (Institute for Food and Development Policy)