Water For Life

The Problem

The Solution

Water Facts

Sudan Appeal

Bangladesh Programme

Water Facts

1. 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water - around 1/6th of the world's population.


2. 2.4 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation - around 2/5ths of the world's population.


3. 2.2 million people in developing countries, mostly children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe water, and adequate sanitation.


4. Around 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.


5. At any one time approximately half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.


6. 200 million people in the world are infected with schistosomiasis, of whom 20 million suffer severe consequences. The disease is still found in 74 countries of the world.


7. In the past 10 years diarrhoea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II.


8. In 1998, 308,000 people died from war in Africa, but more than two million (six times as many) died of diarrhoeal disease.


9. Hygiene education can save lives. Simply washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal disease by one-third.


10. The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 km.


11. The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads can be anything up to 20kg – the equivalent of your airport luggage allowance.


12. At any time, 1.5 billion people suffer from parasitic worm infections resulting from human waste in the environment. Intestinal worms can cause malnutrition, anaemia and retarded growth.

(Source: Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council - http://www.wsscc.org/)