Friday, March 25, 2011

Some Water Facts for Your Interest!

Hello again!

This weekend I'm planning on starting some more official research on water footprint calculators and which one I'm going to use. For now, here are some interesting water facts that I pulled from the United Nations Water site:

How the world uses freshwater:
• about 70 percent for irrigation
• about 22 percent for industry
• about 8 percent for domestic use
Source: United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

The daily drinking water requirement per person is 2-4 litres, but it takes 2 000 to 5 000 litres of water to produce one person's daily food.
Source: World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)


19 basins involve five or more different countries:
- The Danube River basin is shared by 18 riparian nations.
- Five basins are shared between 9 and 11 countries.
- Thirteen basins have between 5 and 8 riparian nations
Source: The UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

There have been 1,831 interactions (both conflictual and cooperative) over the last fifty years involving transboundary water basins.
- 7 disputes have involved violence, and 507 conflictive events have occurred
- Approximately 200 treaties have been signed, with a total of 1,228 cooperative events.
Source: The UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

And here are some more frightening statistics/predictions:


Source: Human Development Report 2006

Source: World Business Counicl For Sustainable Development (WBCSD)


Water is at the heart of many issues including (but absolutely not limited to): disease, food scarcity and international conflict. This is why I feel this is such an important endeavor. Learning how we can reduce our water use now will (optimistically) help us in the future. I don't mean to be an idealist, but I try to stay positive when faced such terrifying predictions.

What's that you say? Most of us readers in North America... and you don't have to worry about water? Think again.

The United States is by far the world's largest consumer of water and its water use cannot be supported. The residents of United States is now absolutely dependent on non-renewable groundwater resources for roughly 50% (that's right, half) of their daily water usage. Within approximately 5 years, 36 states will likely face a water crisis similar to the situation in California.
Source: Blue Covenant: the global water crisis and the coming battle for the right to water by Maude Barlow

And Canada isn't doing any better. The average Canadian uses 335 liters of water per day. This is more than double the water use of the average European. And as over developing nations are striving to lower their water usage (the United States water use has actually declined in the past 20 years), the average Canadian is using more than 25% more water per day than they did 20 years ago.
Source: On Guard for Thee? Water (Ab)uses and Management in Canada by Dan Shrubsole and Dianne Draper

This is a bit of a lazy post, but I had to write something and I'm on a bit of a time-crunch!

Take care and keeping spreading the word!

Your Water Warrior,


1 comment: