Facts About Water

• Only 1% of all the water on Earth is fresh and liquid and usable.
• About 3% is fresh (e.g., in glaciers).
• The present global population is about 7 billion people.
• Nearly 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water.
• About 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation.
• Every day, 2,000 – 6,000 children die of preventable water-related diseases.
• Drought, desertification, or flooding threaten the lives of at least 1 billion people in over 110 countries.
• The average American lifestyle is kept afloat by about 2,000 gallons of H2O a day, twice the global average.
• Many Church statements affirm that the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right.
• The U.N. adopted a resolution July 28, 2010, stating that access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right. The vote was 122 in favor and 41 abstentions.
• Industrialized countries like the United States and Canada withheld support for this resolution.

“There is enough water for human need but not for human greed.” —Gandhi