1. By 2050 the world’s population is estimated to grow by three billion – 90% of which will be in the developing world. Unless sustainable water solutions are quickly scaled, water-stressed regions will be over capacity.
2. Only one thing in the world is more effective in reducing infectious disease than vaccination(i) – clean water.
3. Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
4. Diarrhoea, caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene, kills 2,300 people every day(ii).
5. 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are children under five years old.
6. Every 19 seconds a mother loses a child to a water-related illness(iii).
7. More than 2 billion people gained access to improved water sources between 1990 and 2012, but 748 million still lack what the United Nations recognises as a human right(iv).
8. The total global economic losses associated with inadequate water supply and sanitation are estimated to be $260 billion annually(v). In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year walking to collect water(vi).
9. On average in the UK, someone uses approximately 150 litres of water every day(vii).
10. Most of the 1.1 billion people categorised as lacking access to clean water use about 5 litres a day.
One Water was founded with the express purpose of effecting a change to these sad statistics. You can help us do this by spreading the word. Tell your families, tell your friends. When you buy a bottle of water, try to buy One Water. Or if you’d like to make a donation, please visit onedifference.org/the-one-foundation
(i) World Health Organisation (WHO); (ii) Tropical Medicine and International Health; (iii) WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation; (iv) WHO; (v) WHO; (vi) UNICEF; (vii) Waterwise