Clean Water Crisis Facts


  • Nearly 1 billion people don't have access to clean water
  • Disease from unsafe water and lack of sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war
  • More people in the world have cell phones than access to a toilet
  • The ancient Romans had better water quality than half of the people alive now
  • 1 in 8 people drink water that will make them sick
  • Every 19 seconds a child dies from a water-related illness
  • 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions, are children under the age of 5
  • Thousands of children drop out of school every year to meet water needs for their family
  • Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every 4 hours
  • 443 Million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness
  • Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any given time
  • Diarrhea, caused by dirty waters, kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined
  • Women and children walk 3 hours a day to collect water
  • Women must walk 3 hours a day carrying a 40lb can to collect water.  This is the same weight as two car tires.
  • Time spent collecting water is time not spent in school, earning an income or taking care of family.
  • In Africa alone, the overall economic loss due to lack of safe water and sanitation is $28 BILLION
  • Two in every three people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day.  One in three survives on less than $1 a day
  • Africa alone could save 40 Billion hours of work with access to clean water (that is the entire annual workforce of France)
  • Half of the world's hospitalizations are due to water-related diseases.
  • People living in the slums often pay 11% of their income for clean water 

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