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Misc. Water Contamination Stats.


Impacts on Kids

Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. (15)

Children in poor environments often carry 1000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time. (9)

For children under age five, water-related diseases are the leading cause of death. (16)

1.8 million children die each year from diarrhea – 4,900 deaths each day. (12)



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Impacts on Women

Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources. (12)

Lack of toilets makes women and girls vulnerable to violence if they are forced to defecate only after nightfall and in secluded areas. Sanitation enhances dignity, privacy and safety, especially for women and girls. Schools with decent toilet facilities enable children, especially girls reaching puberty, to remain in the educational system. (17)

A study by the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) of community water and sanitation projects in 88 communities found that projects designed and run with the full participation of women are more sustainable and effective than those that do not. This supports an earlier World Bank study that found that women’s participation was strongly associated with water and sanitation project effectiveness. (8)

Evidence shows that women are responsible for half of the world’s food production (as opposed to cash crops) and in most developing countries, rural women produce between 60-80 percent of the food. Women also have an important role in establishing sustainable use of resources in small-scale fishing communities, and their knowledge is valuable for managing and protecting watersheds and wetlands. (8)



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Impacts on Health

At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease. (12)

It is estimated that improved sanitation facilities could reduce diarrhea-related deaths in young children by more than one-third. If hygiene promotion is added, such as teaching proper hand washing, deaths could be reduced by two thirds. It would also help accelerate economic and social development in countries where sanitation is a major cause of lost work and school days because of illness. (17)

No intervention has greater overall impact upon national development and public health than the provision of safe drinking water and the proper disposal of human waste. (18)

Human health improvements are influenced not only by the use of clean water, but also by personal hygiene habits and the use of sanitation facilities. (19)

Close to half of all people in developing countries are suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits. (12)

The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. (12)



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Impacts on Productivity

Estimated economic benefits of investing in drinking-water and sanitation:

272 million school attendance days a year, an added 1.5 billion healthy days for children under five years of age, together representing productivity gains of US $9.9 billion a year (14)
Values of deaths averted, based on discounted future earnings, amounting to US $3.6 billion a year (14)
Every US dollar in sanitation provides and economic return of eight US dollars. – WHO (12)



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