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Eco-facts about water supplies of the Earth

Each of us through his or her everyday behaviour has an influence on potable water supplies. Do you know that...

• One eighth of the Earth population is suffering from thirst and diseases caused by consuming polluted water – according to data of the World Health Organization, about 884 million people have no access to safe sources of water
• According to estimates of WHO (World Health Organisation), every day about 4 thousand children die because of diseases connected with the scarcity of clean water (it means that, statistically, every 20 seconds one child dies)
• In 2050 about 7 billion people in 60 countries can suffer from the scarcity of potable water
• 71% of the globe surface is covered by water, but only 2.5% of the world water supplies is fresh water, and less than 1% is potable water
• 70% of potable water supplies is provided by glaciers, and as a result of global warming they become smaller from year to year; according to a report by WWF the increase of average temperature by only 4° Celsius can lead to the disappearance of all glaciers (since 1960 their area has already decreased by 4 thousand square kilometres, and the pace of their melting is growing more and more)
• Water supplies all over the world are becoming smaller. In a few years only 1/3 of the global population will have plenty of it
• Also in Poland there are shortages of water; the largest problems are suffered by the regions of Upper Silesia, Cracow, Lodz and Kielce, as well as Szczecin, where the biggest programme in Poland with regard to constructing new water mains, repairing the waterworks and building a sewage treatment plant is currently being implemented
• Every day 2 million tonnes of waste get into the global water supplies, and nearly half of the biggest rivers in the world is severely polluted or threatened with going dry
• 70% of the global water use is connected with agriculture, and 22% with industry
• Every day an inhabitant of Great Britain uses about 135 litres of water, whereas an inhabitant of a developing country uses 10 litres (this is more or less what we use every day to flush the toilet)
• On 22nd March we celebrate the World Day of Water, which was established by a resolution of 22 December 1992 by the UN General Assembly within Agency 21, during the World Summit Conference 1992 (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The reason for that was the fact that over a billion people in the world are suffering from the lack of access to clean potable water
• In countries affected by the shortage of water it often becomes the object of profiteering; in some towns and cities prices of water from private suppliers are over one hundred times higher than official ones, e.g. in Delhi (India) this price is inflated even to 489 times
• For your basic everyday activities on average you use up:
  10 l of water for flushing the toilet
  40-60 l of water for taking a shower
  120 l of water for having a bath in your bathtub
  50 l for washing up a full sink of dishes under a running tap
  10 l of water for washing your teeth
  5 l for watering flowers
  130 l of water for your washing machine