Water Facts

Water Facts

One of the most critical needs in the fight against poverty is the need for clean water. In order to effectively fight poverty, you must learn the facts about water and understand how it affects so many aspects of life. Knowing these water facts is a necessary part of understanding the problem of poverty.

The facts about water don’t have to be as alarming as they are – deaths from diseases caused by dirty water are easily preventable. Even so, lack of access to clean water continues to complicate life for those in poverty.

One of the most sobering facts about water is that thousands of children die each day as a result of diseases caused by a lack of clean water or adequate sanitation. One of the ways that Compassion’s program fights poverty is to provide access to clean water for sponsored children and their families.

Your sponsorship will radically change life for a child in need. When you sponsor a child through Compassion, your child and his or her family no longer have to fight each day to find clean water. Their time and energy can instead go towards other things like education and income generation. When you change the facts about water for a child in poverty, you change his life forever.

Water Facts
Water Facts Get the facts about safe water and adequate sanitation and how it affects children and their families.
  • Roughly 12 percent of the world's population, or 884 million people, do not have access to safe water.
  • Depending on living conditions, including climate and physical activity, drinking-water needs for individuals vary, but the optimal amount is estimated at 2 quarts per day for a 130-pound person and 1 quart per day for a 22-pound child.
  • About 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation - roughly two-fifths of the world's population.
  • Approximately 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This is around 5,000 deaths a day.
  • Diarrheal diseases can be reduced by more than 40 percent through the simple practice of washing hands with soap and water.
  • Water-related diseases are the second biggest killer of children worldwide. Number one is acute respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis.
  • Approximately 97.5 percent of the water on earth is saltwater. If all the world's water could fit in an average bucket, only 1 teaspoon would be drinkable.
  • Nearly 90 percent of water-related diseases are due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; and most victims are children in developing countries.
  • The average person in the developing world uses a little more than 2.5 gallons of water each day for drinking, washing and cooking. Whereas the average person in the developed world uses 13 gallons per day only for toilet flushing.
  • Agriculture uses more than 80 percent of the world's total water consumption.
  • Worldwide, approximately 425 million children under 18 do not have safe water.

Print this water fact sheet