Make a difference on World Water Day

Make a difference on World Water Day

On World Water Day (Monday March 22) TEAR Fund is challenging Kiwis to make a difference for the more than 1 billion people living without access to clean water. Whether for drinking or growing food, clean water is vital to sustain life, yet more than 1 billion people don’t have access to this necessity of life.

TEAR Fund supports many water projects around the world helping to reduce the number of deaths due to waterborne diseases. In India for instance, TEAR Fund has been working for many years to reach the poorest and most remote villages to ensure they have access to clean drinking water and water for irrigating crops. This is having a huge impact by reducing waterborne diseases and reducing the time it takes for women and girls to fetch water. It mans that the women have more time to look after their families and girls can attend school.

The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. It occurs each year on March 22 and encourages organisations around the world to host events and activities that focus on improving water, sanitation, and hygiene provision.

TEAR Fund has water projects in:
India
Nepal
Somaliland

10 World Water Facts

1. More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean water

2. Waterborne diseases cause the death of more than 1.5 million children each year (or more than 3.5 Million people in total)

3. More than an estimated 2.5 billion people globally live without adequate sanitation.

4. Every day, 2 million tons of sewage and other effluents drain into the
world’s waterways.

5. The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.

6. Taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.

7. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
8. Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.

9. At any one time, more than half of the poor in the developing world are ill from causes related to hygiene, sanitation and water supply.

10. Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per litre of water than wealthy people living in the same city.

ENDS

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