Today is World Water Day, a day where people all over the world tell lawmakers, corporate leaders, philanthropists, social innovators, non-profits and regular ol’ Joes to step-up to help solve the global water crisis.
Our friends at WASH Advocates sent us a Top 10 List to coincide with World Water Day.
Below are 10 reasons why you should pay attention to World Water Day:
- More than 780 million people lack access to safe drinking water; 2.5 billion lack access to an adequate toilet.
- Every 20 seconds a child dies as a result of poor sanitation.
- People with Water related diseases fill half the hospital beds in developing countries
- Diarrhea and pneumonia are the two leading causes of child death in the world today.
- Eighty-eight percent of diarrhea cases worldwide are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene.
- Women in sub-Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours annually collecting water.
- The provision of sanitary latrines at schools increases girls’ enrollment by 11 percent, leading to increases in female literacy.
- WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) has the potential to prevent at least 9.1% of the global disease burden and 6.3% of all deaths.
- For every $1.00 invested in water and sanitation, approximately $4.00 is returned through increased productivity and decreased health care costs.
- This crisis is solvable, and everyone can be part of the solution. That includes engineers, philanthropists, corporate leaders, social innovators, nonprofits, Rotary clubs, even politicians.
It takes less than two minutes for you to help provide safe water and sanitation to families who need it.
Sign the World Water Day Petition asking your Member of Congress to support the Water for the World Act, which will soon be reintroduced. This legislation will help ensure that existing U.S. funds will be spent efficiently and effectively on water, sanitation, and hygiene programs overseas.
“Like” WASH Advocates, a local DC non-profit, on Facebook to receive updates on events and initiatives to improve access to clean water and sanitation: https://www.facebook.com/WASHadvocates