• The average North American uses 158.5 gallons of water a day. The average person in the developing world uses 2.6–5.2 gallons a day for drinking, washing and cooking (U.N. Human Development Report).
• An American taking a 5-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country’s slum uses in a whole day (U.N. Development Programme).
• The average weight of water women in Africa carry on their heads is 50 pounds, the same as the average airport checked luggage allowance (U.N. Human Development Report).
• 1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, roughly 1 in 8 of the world’s population. In Africa, 2 out of 5 people lack clean water (World Health Organization/U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund).
• About 2 in 3 people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 per day, with 1 in 3 living on less than $1 (World Health Organization).
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns (U.N. Development Programme).
• 98 percent of water-related deaths occur in the developing world, and 84 percent of water-related deaths occur in children ages 0–14 (World Health Organization).
• Every year, there are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water — resulting in 2.2 million deaths, equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing every day (World Health Organization).
• 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. That’s 4,000 child deaths a day, or 1 child every 20 seconds (U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund).
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