60-Minutes worth of Facts about Water: Watch the slide show and write down at least 5 interesting facts (on page 48).

Water Statistics: According to the United Nations, more than 1 billion people have no access to clean and safe drinking water. 1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.

A third of the Earth’s population lives in “water stressed” countries.

Many women and young girls must trek as much as six miles everyday to retrieve water for their families. Due to this manual labor, they are prevented from pursuing an education, maintaining their households or earning additional income.

Meanwhile… The country with the world’s best public drinking supply is also the country that consumes the most bottled water… The United States.

Consider the Plastic Bottle Of Water Americans drink about 215 bottles of water each year. That adds up To over 66 billion disposable plastic water bottles a year.

In 2011, Americans spent $21 billion on bottled water. That’s more than was spent on iPods or movie tickets!

90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself. $1.99 for.5 liter of Fiji Water = 20 cents for the water $1.99 would buy 600 gallons of tap water in Chandler. 20 cents would buy about 60 gallons. Rate = $43/12,000 gallons or about 1/3 cent per gallon

Speaking of Fiji Water… It takes 7 liters of water to produce the half-liter bottle of Fiji Water that you buy at your local store.

Only about 20% of plastic water bottles are recycled. That means 50 billion plastic water bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year — 140 million every day!

That’s enough, laid end to end, to reach China and back each day!

Scientists believe that plastic bottles will not actually decompose. They will only break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits.

Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That's about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle.

Many studies show that the quality of bottled water is no better than tap water. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water. In a four-year study, roughly 22 percent of the (bottled) water tested contained contaminant levels that exceeded strict state health limits.

Although most people say they like the taste of bottle water better than tap water… 1/3 of bottled water actually comes from a “public water source” (TAP!) somewhere.

The National Institutes of Health recently issued an alarm saying there was “some concern” that the BPA found in some water bottles could be causing brain problems in fetuses and children and prostate and breast problems in adults. Don’t care about the environment? How about your health?

Is using bottled water worth the cost? What other options are there?

Use other types of packaging. Use a home water filter and reusable containers Recycle! Boycott bottled water Help clean up the trash! Push for laws that help support a clean water supply and prevent pollution