Water

Clean water is essential to human health and in many parts of the world it is in short supply.
=== Action ideas ===
*If you can get your drinking water from a tap and avoid environmentally harmful bottled water
*If eating out, don't be embarrassed about asking for drinking water from a tap and avoid environmentally harmful bottled water
* Use reusable and recyclable drinking water containers such as glass jugs
Why it matters
Water and human health
Water fit for human consumption is called drinking water or "potable water". Water that is not specifically made for drinking, but is not harmful for humans when used for food preparation is called safe water.
This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern.
Currently, about 1 billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries have accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water and sanitation during the 2003 G8 Evian summit G8 "Action plan" decided upon at the 2003 Evian summit . Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water supplies and over 1 billion without access to adequate sanitation facilities. Poor water quality and bad sanitation are killers; some 5 million deaths a year are caused by polluted drinking water.
That is hardly surprising, since in the developing world, 90% of all wastewater still goes untreated into local rivers and streams. Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world’s population, also suffer from medium or high water stress, and 17 of these extract more water annually than is recharged through their natural water cycles . The strain affects surface freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes, but it also degrades groundwater resources.
=== The politics of water distribution ===
:See water resources for information about fresh water supplies; see also Category:Water and politics for articles treating about water politics
Because of overpopulation in many regions of the world, mass consumption and water pollution, the availability of drinking water per capita is inadequate and shrinking as of the year 2006. For this reason, water is a strategic resource in the globe, and an important element in many political conflicts. Some have predicted that clean water will become the "next oil", making Canada, with this resource in abundance, possibly the richest country in the world. There is a long history of conflict over water, including efforts to gain access to water, the use of water in wars started for other reasons, and tensions over shortages and control A Chronology of Water-Related Conflicts . UNESCO's World Water Development Report (WWDR, 2003) from its World Water Assessment Program indicates that, in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30%. 40% of the world's inhabitants currently have insufficient fresh water for minimal hygiene. More than 2.2 million people died in 2000 from diseases related to the consumption of contaminated water or drought. In 2004, the UK charity WaterAid reported that a child dies every 15 seconds due to easily preventable water-related diseases. Fresh water, now more precious than ever in our history for its extensive use in agriculture, high-tech manufacturing, and energy production, is increasingly receiving attention as a resource requiring better management and sustainable use.
=== Resources ===
*Places for Water Refills - Add New
*Not a drop to drink (raw image), Infographic: Lack of clean water access worldwide
*What is your water footprint
=== Related ===
=== Diary international ===
*2005 to 2015 Water for Life Decade
* August 20-26 2006 World Water Week, Stockholm
*Waterjustice.org, resource centre on alternatives to privatisation
* Water Conserve - Water Conservation Portal
* UNESCO's World Water Assessment Program
* UNESCO Water Portal
* UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
* European Water Association.
* Whose right to water Schools resource on water rights
* United Nations' World Water Development Report
* United Nations GEMS/Water Programme
* The World's Water, data, historical information on conflict
* Phase diagrams of water
* Oceans and Water Issues Page
* Bottled Water vs Tap Water - Tap or Bottled: which is better? This site contains facts about tap and bottled water and compares them.
* Scientific Facts on Water Disinfectants A faithful summary by GreenFacts of a leading scientific consensus report on Drinking Water Disinfectants published by the International Programme on Chemical Safety of the WHO.
* World Water Forum
* Water Structure and Behaviour
* WaterAid
* SAHRA—Global Water Newswatch
* Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
* California Water Impact Network (C-WIN)
* BBC: The water debate
* BBC News (International): The Water Debate
* E the Environmental Magazine piece on bottled water (Oct 2003).
* International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam
* US Geological Survey: Comprehensive discussion of the water cycle, in many languages
* Why is water blue?
* Water, scientific data (by London South Bank University)
* Water requirements in adults
* Climate change raises markets for environmental technology, drinking water and clean energies
* 'Unfreezable water', bound water and water of hydration
*Water footprint
References
*Scientific American, Energy versus water: solving both crises together, October 2008
 
Category:Natural resources
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