{"id":1127,"date":"2019-03-22T13:53:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:22:10","slug":"water-crisis-everywhere-not-a-drop-to-drink-world-water-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/water-crisis-everywhere-not-a-drop-to-drink-world-water-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Crisis Everywhere, Not A Drop To Drink &#8211; World Water Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World Water Day happens every year since 1993. It&#8217;s a day to really think about how important water is, because, frankly, we can&#8217;t live without it. The United Nations started this day because we&#8217;ve been using too much water. It&#8217;s a strange problem, isn&#8217;t it? Our planet has billions of gallons of water, but the amount we can actually drink is shrinking fast.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twenty-six years later, things are even worse. Two big global cities, Cape Town and Manila, are staring down &#8220;Day 0&#8221; \u2013 the day their taps run dry. <\/span><\/i>\\\\n\\\\n<b>The Scary Numbers<\/b>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We&#8217;ve had years of awareness campaigns and conservation efforts, but water supplies are still so low. People around the world are waiting in mile-long lines just to fill three buckets for their families. This harsh reality is backed up by the recent <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unwater.org\/world-water-development-report-2019-leaving-no-one-behind\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World Water Development Report <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that the UN released this Tuesday. This report is already shaking up global leaders, highlighting some crucial statistics that should have improved over the last 15 years, according to the report.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIf we keep degrading our natural environment and putting unsustainable pressure on global water resources at current rates, <\/span><b><i>45% of global Gross Domestic Product and 40% of global grain production will be at risk by 2050.<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d &nbsp;&#8211; Gilbert F. Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The numbers he&#8217;s talking about feel like a bad flashback from years ago.<\/span>\\\\n<\/p>\n<ul>\\n \\t<\/p>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even after so many initiatives, 3 out of 10 people didn&#8217;t have access to safe drinking water in 2015. That&#8217;s a massive 2.1 billion people. <\/span><\/li>\n<p>\\n \\t<\/p>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">4.5 billion, or 6 out of 10 people, lived in areas with improperly and unsafely managed sanitation facilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<p>\\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The report says it&#8217;s even scarier for the poor.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<b>The Poor Carry The Heaviest Load<\/b>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Half the people drinking unsafe, contaminated water live in Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only <\/span><b>24% of the population has access to safe water, and 28% have access to sanitation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But for poor families, the situation is truly terrible, and the differences are stark.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The report points out that in cities, poor people living in slums often have to buy water from trucks, kiosks, and other vendors. They end up spending roughly 10 to 20 times more than wealthy homes with piped water. The report also reminds us that access to this resource is a basic human right. It shouldn&#8217;t be denied based on ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, or anything else. Yet, the report goes on to say, that&#8217;s exactly what&#8217;s happening.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThose who are marginalized or discriminated against because of their gender, age, socio-economic status, or because of their ethnic, religious or linguistic identity, are also more likely to have limited access to proper water and sanitation.\u201d<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<b>Crisis In The Developed World? Yes.<\/b>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It might seem far-fetched, but this water crisis is starting to haunt even developed countries. The Chief Executive of England has warned that the country will face a shortage in the next 25 years.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking at the Waterwise Conference in London on Tuesday, James Bevan said, \u201cIn around 20 to 25 years from now, the country would face the jaws of death \u2013 the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs.\u201d <\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He also mentioned that the country will see a 10-15 percent drop in supply, and half of them would face a deficit by 2050. This is happening because England is experiencing longer, drier summers than before. The average U.K. citizen uses about 140 liters of water per day. That amount will have to be cut if the country wants to avoid a major problem.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<b>So, What Can We Do?<\/b>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This situation mirrors the reality the world faced 15 years ago and brings up an important question: Is what we&#8217;re doing enough? Shouldn&#8217;t we be doing more? <\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">James Bevan thinks so. \u201cWe need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea,\u201d Bevan said. \u201cWe need everyone to take responsibility for their own water usage.\u201d <\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ulla Burchardt, a member of Germany&#8217;s SPD and part of UNESCO&#8217;s Germany board, agrees. After seeing the U.N. report&#8217;s findings, she&#8217;s urged her country to do more. &#8220;We are partly responsible for the great problems in other regions of the world, such as the import of cotton or beef, the production of which can be very water-intensive,&#8221; Burchardt said.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s time for even the U.S. to really start building major conservation initiatives to cut its carbon footprint. The country needs better plans, smarter management systems, and clear awareness strategies to make sure citizens take responsibility for using this resource \u2013 which, for many, has become a luxury \u2013 responsibly.<\/span>\\\\n\\\\n<b><i>Author\u2019s Bio:<\/i><\/b><b><i>\\\\n<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">AMPAC USA builds advanced <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reverse Osmosis<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> treatment systems. For over 30 years, we&#8217;ve been giving our customers and clients worldwide solutions for their water treatment problems. <\/span><\/i>\\n<\/p>\n<p>Related reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/how-can-persistent-water-crisis-affect-the-world-ampac-usa\/\">How Can Persistent Water Crisis Affect The World &#8211; AMPAC USA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/the-connection-between-seawater-desalination-and-water-crisis\/\">The Connection Between Seawater Desalination And Water Crisis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/is-cape-towns-water-crisis-really-over\/\">Is Cape Town\u2019s Water Crisis Really Over?<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Water Day is observed every year since 1993 to acknowledge the importance of this element which is so important for the existence of life on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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