If you're on Facebook, you and your friends
may have posted notes with 25 facts about themselves. We wanted to share
with you 25 things we think are really interesting about water. It's on our
Facebook page, too--please feel free to share it with your friends.
If you're on Facebook, you and your friends may have posted notes with 25
facts about themselves. We wanted to share with you 25 things we think are
really interesting about water. It's on
our Facebook page, too – please feel free to share it with your
friends.
25 Things You Might Not Know about Water
1. The world is currently in a water crisis. One out of six people
worldwide doesn’t have access to clean water. Every year, 2 million people
die of diseases caused by a lack of clean water.
2. Regions throughout the world are experiencing water shortages, due to
both droughts and overuse of water. Rivers all over the world, including
the Columbia River, now dry up before reaching their ends.
3. Companies like Nestlé are taking communities’ water for bottling
despite public opposition, in the US and abroad.
4.
Bottled water plants don’t provide good jobs.
5. Water advocacy does.
Food & Water Watch is hiring (and it’s a great place to work!).
6. The international financial institutions (World Bank and IMF) have
essentially forced many countries to sell their public water utilities to
big water corporations.
7. Communities all over the world have organized, and in some cases
shed blood, to regain control of their water resources.
8. Bottled water isn’t safer than tap water. Last year, Environmental
Working Group did a
study that tested popular brands of bottled water for
contamination. They found 38 different harmful chemicals, including
painkillers, fertilizer and arsenic, in 10 brands of bottled water.
9. The average American’s indoor water use is about 69 gallons of water
per day. Calculate your water footprint
here.
10. According to the
Washington Post in 2005, “Just one flush of a toilet in the
West uses more water than most Africans have to perform an entire day's
washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.”
11. Worldwide, big investors like
T. Boone Pickens are buying up water rights like they have bought up
oil. Some have predicted that the next wars will be over water.
12. You can carbonate your own water with a machine like
this
if you like it fizzy.
13. Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into your water. Lined aluminum or
stainless steel bottles like our Take Back the Tap one are the
safest alternative.
14. Industry is pushing technology that makes ocean water into drinking
water as a solution to shortages. But really,
it’s a bad idea.
15. Conservation can get us farther. Check out a whole bunch of
conservation tips
here.
16. In the US, people who get their water from a privately owned utility
pay up to 80% more than those who get it from a public utility. Private
sewer service can cost twice as much as public.
17. We may be able to conserve water by investing in renewable energy
sources. According to Harper’s magazine in December 2008, half of all
freshwater drawn from U.S. sources each year is used to cool power plants.
18. In Bolivia, nearly one out of every ten children dies before the age
of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a
lack of clean drinking water. This statistic and others are discussed in
the movie
FLOW.
19. Every day, an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water
leak out of pipes in the US.
20. In 1978, the feds paid for 78% of water infrastructure in the US. As
of 2008, it was 3%. Many communities don’t have the money to make up the
difference. You can meet with your legislator to tell them you support the
creation of a dedicated source of funding for water infrastructure.
21. Up to 40% of bottled water is actually just municipal water that’s
been packaged.
22. There’s a growing movement of college campuses and restaurants who
have decided not to sell bottled water. You can
join the
movement with your school or business.
23. Most funky taste in water can be removed with a filter, such as a
Brita. (We don’t have any financial interest in selling Britas.) Chlorine
taste will go away if you leave the water in an open pitcher overnight.
24. In 2003, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa started to install
prepaid water meters, preventing the very poorest from accessing clean
water. In 2008, the Johannesburg High Court declared this
unconstitutional. This was a victory for the people, but the decision is
being appealed, and the struggle continues.
25. The movement needs you. This isn’t just for activists—it’s for anyone
whose body is made up of over 70% water.
Click here to see how you can get involved.