The (astounding) Facts:
- There are between 800 million and 1 billion people that have no access to clean drinking water.
- That’s roughly 1 in 8 people on the globe, and roughly 3 times the population of the United States.
- 3.5 million people die each year from drinking bad water - an astounding figure given the preventable nature of the statistic.
- Diarrhea is the 2nd leading cause of death in infants and children. The majority of diarrheal diseases are caused by unsanitary water.
- To put it in perspective: in the U.S. we think of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes to be the worst of the worst in terms of the number of victims they claim each year. Combined, they claim about 1.25 million lives, roughly a mere third the amount that die each year from drinking contaminated water.
- The United Nations estimates that half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water-related diseases and illness, and that in developing countries around 80% of all illnesses are caused by poor water and sanitation.
The amount of suffering caused by contaminated water is literally unfathomable and altogether preventable.