World Water Day - 2006 (short)

World Water Day March 22nd Each and every year

Water, water, everywhere! • The earth's total water supply is estimated to be 330 million cubic miles, and each cubic mile contains more than one trillion gallons. That’s a lot of water!

But just a bit to drink! • Of course, almost all of it (97%) is saltwater. • So, only a really small fraction (3%) of our Earth’s water is the freshwater we need to sustain 6.5 billion people and many other creatures. Saltwater vs. Freshwater Our Planet Earth

Saltwater Freshwater

But just a bit to drink! • Of the 3% that is precious freshwater, almost all of it (99.7%, or 2.991%) is really hard to get to. • It's locked up in glaciers, or deep, underground aquifers, or in the clouds!

But just a bit to drink! • That doesn’t leave us with much! • .009% of the world’s water is available to us! Available freshwater vs. the rest

•That skinny little line is our freshwater supply! Available freshwater Unavailable freshwater Saltwater

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • Knowing that, you'd think we'd be really careful with freshwater! • But no, we're polluting on a scale far worse than the ancient Romans,

who polluted their rivers so badly that they had to build their famous aqueducts to deliver freshwater from the mountains!

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • So, for example, in China today, • Where rapid industrialization has stifled pollution control, ►half of the population of 1.3 billion lacks access to clean and safe drinking water, and…

►80% of the nation's major rivers no longer support fish.

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • If you think that China's problems are only its own, • You'd be wrong. • In Pakistan, the leading cause of death, gastroenteritis,

is transmitted through waterborne pollutants.

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • Globally, according to the World Bank & UN's "Water for the 21st Century" report (1999), • over half the world's rivers are in danger from pollution.

•And in 2004, the WHO (World Health Organization) reported that...

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • polluted water plays a major part in the worldwide deaths of more than three million children under the age of five every year!

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • Beyond that, those who have access to unpolluted freshwater... • consume & waste it beyond belief. • In an effort to feed ballooning populations, irrigation land use has doubled over the last 40 years, mostly in Asia & the USA.

• But irrigation is massively wasteful. • World irrigated agriculture accounts for 85% of all fresh water consumed!

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • Here’s how much irrigated water is required to put different foods on our plates…

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • Speaking of irrigation, New Scientist magazine in 2006 reported that India and other countries are on the brink of ecological and human disaster, • As millions of farmers draw up groundwater for irrigation • much faster than can be replenished by the country’s infrequent rainfalls!

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • And, of course, we all know about bottled water! • This is a global problem as multinational corporations gain control over, hoard, and commodify -- at huge profit -- drinking water supplies,

• thereby denying humanity rightful access to this lifesustaining common good and gift.

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • With all of these factors in place, it's been projected, not surprisingly, that...

• "the wars of the next century will be fought over water" -- not (just) oil.

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • THOSE WHO CARE DEEPLY ABOUT THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD • AND SO GLOBAL PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT, • Understand, then, that…

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • EVERYONE EVERYWHERE MUST HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER. • That's the simple reason for • World Water Day!

Clean Drinking WaterMore Precious Than Gold • And that's also the same reason why people all over the world • are mobilizing to ensure that governments at all levels formally recognize March 22nd as World Water Day. • It’s long past time to enshrine humanity’s right to this common good.

Credits • This presentation, and any shortcomings in it, produced by Mark B. Durieux (Ph.D.). www.compassnt.com