We often talk about the global water supply issues but it rarely hits home… until somebody presents the facts visually. Our Home Our Planet has come up with a great infographic outlining the most important issues along with easy ways you can do your bit to save water. Scroll down for tips on saving water and some additional food for thought.
An important fact to note is that drinking water is only the tip of the iceberg when we look at the whole array of global problems. The thing that is closely linked to the lack of water – is sanitation. It’s estimated that 2.5 billion people live without adequate sanitation which leads to diseases and overall low quality of life. Diseases that are caused by poor sanitation cause more deaths in children than measles, malaria and HIV combined together. During the course of a year, 60 million children will be born into families that have inadequate access to sanitation.
As we all know, the situation is extremely bad in Africa and Asia. A typical African woman will carry the family’s daily allowance of 20 litres of water on her head. She will cover a distance of several miles to get to the source of water (that’s if she’s lucky). It would take seven or eight people in Africa to carry the average daily water consumption of a single British person.
It is quite tricky. The thing is that if you turn the tap off now, the water you save won’t miraculously resurface in Africa. What we really need to look at is compassion. Understanding the situation in other countries should increase the amount of donations made to organisations dealing with water issues directly where it’s needed most.
Another aspect is that no-one is truly safe when it comes to natural resources, and let’s be honest, we do take it for granted. Britain has traditionally had a steady and high quality water supply but I guess we all remember what happened this summer after a surprisingly dry winter and spring. Water was pretty scarce in some parts of the country and it wasn’t at all a pleasant feeling, even though no-one actually died or suffered from lack of water.
