Water Management: The Global Water Crisis By Meghan Rickel 9/3/13

 The global population is approximately 7 billion today and is expected to increase to 9 billion by  However, the amount of water on Earth is limited. 97% of Earth’s water is salty. Of the remaining 3% of fresh water, 70% is frozen. This leaves approximately.75% of earth’s total water supply for the world’s population to survive on.  Only 9 countries account for 60% of all available freshwater. China and India, on the other hand, account for less than 10% of water and hold over one third of the world’s population. The Current Situation

 The total amount of water, and of fresh water, is fixed  The use of water is increasing with elevated demands from a growing global population. Thus leaving many more people “water stressed”  The transportation of water is difficult and expensive due to its weight. Many people, specifically in Africa, live an average of 3 hours away from the nearest drinking water. Thus women and children in these societies inevitably spend the majority of their time fetching water. The Current Situation

 There is a large amount of Salt water on earth, thus different desalination technologies are being developed. However, many of the current methods of desalination are extremely costly and energy inefficient. Thus, the prospect of desalination requires extensive research in order to be a viable solution to the global water crisis. The Current Situation

 11% of the global population, or 783 million people, are still without access improved sources of drinking water. Access to Water

While the percent of population with access to improved facilities increased since 1990 in all regions, the number of people living without access has increased due to slow progress and population growth. In 2008, 2.6 billion people had still no access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Global Access to Improved Water Sources

 The Ogallala Aquifer supplies Colorado’s agriculture with water. However, when the aquifer dries up, there will no longer be sufficient water resources to continue supporting Colorado’s agriculture. Colorado’s Water Crisis

 Water Management Water Management The Global Water Crisis

 Globally, diarrhoea is the leading cause of illness and death, and 88 per cent of diarrhoeal deaths are due to a lack of access to sanitation facilities, together with inadequate availability of water for hygiene and unsafe drinking water.  The provision of improved sanitation and safe drinking water could reduce diarrhoeal diseases by nearly 90 per cent. Global Sanitation

 In Sub-Saharan Africa, treating diarrhoea consumes 12 percent of the health budget. On a typical day, more than half the hospital beds in are occupied by patients suffering from faecal-related disease.  Washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrhoeal diseases by up to 47 per cent. Global Sanitation

 63 % of the global population use toilets and other improved sanitation facilities.  2.5 billion people lack improved sanitation.  1.1 billion people (15 % of the global population) practice open defecation.  949 million open defecators live in rural areas. Global Sanitation

Today 2.5 billion people, including almost one billion children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That's 1.5 million preventable deaths each year. Water Management

India’s Sanitation Crisis India's Sanitation Crisis