Lis

Water Presentation

The ocean holds 97 percent of the Earth's water; the remaining three percent is freshwater found in glaciers and ice, below the ground, or in rivers and lakes.

Of the three percent of the water that is not in the ocean, about 69 percent is locked up in glaciers and icecaps.

Ninety percent of that frozen water is in Antarctica and about nine percent covers Greenland.

Of the remaining freshwater, 30 percent of it is groundwater, captured below our feet. About 0.3 percent is found in rivers and lakes

This means that the water source we are most familiar with in our everyday lives, rivers and lakes, accounts for less than one percent of all freshwater that exists on Earth.

Water has always been an important and life-sustaining drink to humans and is essential to the survival of most other organisms.

The average adult human body is 50-65% water, averaging around 57-60%. The percentage of water in infants s much higher, typically around 75-78% water, dropping to 65% by one year of age.

Potable water is available in almost all populated areas of the Earth, although it may be expensive and the supply may not always be sustainable.

Average human adult ingests 2.0 liters per day. Bottled water is sold for public consumption in most habitated parts of the world.

Over large parts of the world, humans have inadequate access to potable water and use sources contaminated with disease vectors, pathogens or unacceptable levels of toxins or suspended solids.

Drinking or using such water in food preparation leads to widespread acute and chronic illnesses and is a major cause of death and suffering worldwide in many different countries.

Water is one of the most fundamental elements of our daily lives, yet in many respects, it is also one of the most mismanaged resources in the world

Competition for fresh water production has increased to the point that the scarcity of is now a harsh reality in every continent, not just developing nations.

Climate change impacts and continuous population growth add to the scarcity issues resulting in some potentially very serious problems in the future.

Dirty water causes needless suffering.

Every day in rural communities and poor urban centers throughout sub-Saharan Africa, hundreds of millions of people suffer from a lack of access to clean, safe water.

Women and girls especially bear the burden of walking miles at a time to gather water from streams and ponds - full of water-borne disease that is making them and their families sick.

Illness from drinking dirty water and the time lost fetching it robs entire communities of their futures.

Water scarcity in Africa

Water scarcity or lack of safe drinking water is one of the world's leading problems affecting more than 1.1 billion people globally, meaning that one in every six people lacks access to safe drinking water.

As of 2006, one third of all nations suffered from clean water scarcity, but Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest number of water-stressed countries of any other place on the planet

on the planet and of an estimated 800 million people who live in Africa, 300 million live in a water stressed environment.

Impact on health

The most immediately apparent impact of water scarcity in Africa is on the continent's health.

With a complete lack of water, humans can only live up to 3 to 5 days on average.

This often forces those living in water deprived regions to turn to unsafe water resources

which, according to the World Health Organization, contributes to the spread of waterborne diseases including

including typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery and diarrhea, and to the spread of diseases such as malaria whose vectors rely on such water resources,

and can lead to diseases such as trachoma, plague, and typhus

Additionally, water scarcity causes many people to store water within the household,

, which increases the risk of household water contamination and incidents of malaria and dengue fever spread by mosquitos.

These waterborne diseases are not usually found in developed countries because of sophisticated water treatment systems that filter and chlorinate water

but for those living with less developed or non-existent water infrastructure, natural, untreated water sources often contain tiny disease-carrying worms and bacteria

Although many of these waterborne sicknesses are treatable and preventable, they are nonetheless one of the leading causes of disease and death in the world

Globally, 2.2 million people die each year from diarrhea-related disease

and at any given time fifty percent of all hospital beds in the world are occupied by patients suffering from water-related diseases

Infants and children are especially susceptible to these diseases because of their young immune systems,

which lends to elevated infant mortality rates in many regions of Africa.

Household Waste Water