...But not a drop to drink.
As much as we may not give it much thought, the water that many of us take for granted is in seriously short supply, in fact, what we need is conservation on a global scale.
The problem is until we begin to understand that the only alternative to water is water we will continue to misuse, mismanage, pollute, and waste our most precious resource.
Although the idea of water becoming scarce may seem a little extreme, water scarcity is not only real, it is already affecting countries on every continent.
FACT: You can survive for 3 weeks without food but only 3 days without water...
In fact, 1.7 billion people already live in water stressed areas and, in just a matter of years, the World Resources Institute (WRI) believe, that almost 40% of the world’s population or 3.5 billion people will be affected by water scarcity and drought whilst global consumption is expected to grow by a further 40%.
As much as we may like to think that water scarcity will only affect those living in hot, semi-arid countries and continents, the truth is, water scarcity will affect everyone no matter who they are or where they live.
In fact, it is already happening in the UK; according to the Environment Agency, the entire Southern and South East regions of the country are classified as being under serious water stress where the available water per person is actually less than for Morocco and Egypt.
The South East of the UK is not alone, and experts believe that based on current figures that up to 20 million UK households would need to stop using water altogether if we are to safeguard our rivers and underground aquifers. And that is implausible, only serving to highlight the severity of this very real global problem.
However the world’s water problems are complex, and they are not just about distribution and changes in precipitation and climate. We also have to consider cultural factors that have seen us take water for granted, whilst the effects of poor and improper water management now threatens the flow of some of the worlds mightiest rivers including the Colorado in the USA.
FACT: Agriculture is the biggest user of water and accounts for over 70% of global water use...
In addition to improper use and poor water management, we also have to look at the impact our lives and lifestyles have had on the quality of water, where we have albeit, inadvertently, poisoned and polluted almost half of all the worlds freshwater. Agricultural runoff, effluents from industry, toxic chemicals that have leached out from our overfull rubbish dumps and landfills, wastewater and contaminants from stormwater have all played a significant role.
In fact, some 40% of American rivers and lakes are too polluted for swimming, fishing and aquatic life. And in Europe, the European Environmental Agency (EEA) stated that the vast majority of Europe's rivers, lakes and estuaries have failed to meet the minimum ecological standards, with the UK coming out as the worst offender.
Similarly, in China 70% of their rivers and lakes are polluted and over half of them contain water that is considered unfit for human consumption. In fact unsafe or dirty water is responsible for some 842,000 deaths every year and over half of all the hospital beds in the world are filled with people suffering from water related illnesses.
There is no doubt that water scarcity is one of the greatest global challenges of our time, and as we look to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) we know that to meet SDG6 and provide clean water and sanitation to the world we need concerted effort from everyone and we all have a role to play.
As individuals, we can become water wise so that we reduce the amount of water we use and moreover waste in our day-to-day lives. For some simple water saving tips check out our site.
As consumers, we can use our voices to insist that water companies clean up their act, so that they stop sewage from entering our fresh water supplies, and work to fix ageing pipes and leaks, that according to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), amounted to a staggering 3.1 billion litres everyday - and that is for just England and Wales alone.
Incredible as it may seem, everything we eat, use and touch has water embedded into it, for example; to produce just one cotton t-shirt takes 2,720 litres of water which is more than the average person drinks in three years! A basic hamburger has a staggering 2498 litres and every drop of coffee has taken an incredible 1100 drops of water to produce...
On a global scale, we need to look at every aspect of manufacturing so that corporations and the wheels of industry place greater emphasis on water efficiency, and we need to adopt innovative working practices so that we reduce the amount of water used in food production and farming.
Learning to better use the world's wastewater will ensure that we are more prepared to manage instances of drought and avert the long-term consequences of famine and migration.
FACT: It is estimated that well over 80 percent of wastewater worldwide (over 95 percent in some developing countries) is released to the environment without treatment. - Source UN
Working together we can restore the world's waterways, reduce water pollution, regenerate the world's drylands, and with education, we can end the practice of open defecation. Sharing knowledge we can deliver a range of affordable, clean water solutions to even the most remote and impoverished communities and this, will help us meet the aims of SDG1 and lift some of the world's poorest people out of poverty and this will then help us unlock more of the global goals that, like us, are all interconnected...
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