The Worldwide Water Crisis – Facts and Information [Infographic]

The Worldwide
Water Crisis

www.ozpoly.com.au

Five Facts On The
International Water Crisis

	844 million people around the world don't have access to clean water.
	There will be a 40% gap between water demand and availability by 2030.
	Over 80% of wastewater goes back into the environment without proper treatment.
	1.8 billion people have no choice but to drink water contaminated by human excrement .
	30% of water extracted from natural sources worldwide is lost through leakage.

Five ways unsafe water impacts
people and society

LIFE

Globally, an estimated 3.5 million deaths, 25% of which are children younger than 14 years old, are caused by unsafe water, poor sanitation, and poor hygiene.

HEALTH

Dysentery, typhoid, and cholera plague communities forced to use unsafe water.

Vulnerable people, especially children, die from these preventable diseases.
Time and money are lost caring for the ill.
Community development is compromised.

Access to safe water, on the other hand, enables communities to thrive.

GLOBAL CONFLICT

Many countries share freshwater resources, including river basins and aquifers. Violent disputes and war destroy infrastructure for water services. Additionally, water shortages are common, escalating conflict over a dwindling resource.

FEMALE POPULATION

Women and girls are more severely affected than men by poor water services and water shortages. They are responsible for water collection and often have to walk great distances to find water, which may be contaminated and unsafe.

Women in sub-Saharan Africa spend an estimated 40 billion hours annually walking to and from water sources.
Women and young girls without access to toilets spend an estimated 97 billion hours annually looking for a place to go in relative privacy.
46,000 women could graduate from college daily if they weren’t looking for a safe place to go to the bathroom.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

An estimated $260 billion is lost as a result of poor water services and sanitation. The time spent getting water daily and combating preventable waterborne diseases could be better spent earning a living. It also costs money that is spent on medicine.

Five reasons communities
experience clean water shortages

	POOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT: Conflict and insufficient infrastructure management training compromise the integrity of water infrastructure and services. Government support is needed to maintain infrastructure and training to ensure sustainability.
	POVERTY AND INEQUALITY While access to water and sanitation are basic human rights, prejudice based on ethnicity, gender, disability, income, and social rank are used to deprive people of these rights.
	CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change and alternating periods of drought and flooding can lead to water shortages and contamination of natural water sources. In turn, these can cause crop failure and hunger.
	POPULATION GROWTH Surging populations around the world place increasing demand on dwindling water sources.
	WAR AND CONFLICT Ongoing conflict can collapse even the most-well-developed infrastructure, leading to a water crisis. Water shortages and contaminated water increase waterborne diseases and put additional pressure on public health systems.

Top ten countries
jeopardised by poor
water quality

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