- There are 884 million people worldwide who do not have access to safe water. That is roughly 1 in 8 of the world’s population. (WHO/ UNICEF)
- Roughly 1.4 million children die each year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That is 4,000 child deaths each day or one child every 20 seconds. (WHO/WaterAid)
- In Ethiopia, alone, there are overn 59 million people who do not have access to safe water and make less than $2 per day.
- The weight of water women and girls in Africa carry is about 45-50 pounds. Doing this daily can impair normal development among girls. (HDR 2006, Fistula Hospital Ethiopia)
- Roughly 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 1998)
- North Americans use approximately 100 gallons of water every day. The average person in the developing world uses about 2.5 gallons. (HDR- 2006, WSSCC)
- Of all the renewable water available in Africa each year, only 4% is utilized as most communities lack wells, canals, pumps, reservoirs, and other irrigation systems.
- In Ethiopia, almost 74,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhea each year.
