|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
Water Water is foundation of life. Although it covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, we sometimes forget the necessity of water. ADRA takes water seriously. Only 2.5 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh. Over 1.5 percent of that is locked in glaciers. To ensure our basic needs, every individual needs an estimated five to 13 gallons of clean water each day. Plants, through transpiration, release about 10 percent of the atmosphere’s moisture. More than 200 million hours are spent each day by women and female children to collect water from distant, often polluted sources. Hygiene education and promotion of hand washing can reduce diarrheal cases by up to 45 percent. More than one billion people lack access to safe water supplies, while 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation. In 2005 $100 billion was spent on bottled water. For $30 billion per year, everyone on the planet could have clean water. Every day, about 29.000 children under the age of five die, mainly from preventable causes. Malnutrition and the lack of safe water and sanitation contribute to half of these deaths. By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost more than one percent of its total water amount. As global climate changes continue to upset normal weather cycles worldwide, equitable access to plentiful clean water is more crucial than ever. ADRA believes that clean water should never be a luxury. Because where there is a water, there is a life. And there is a hope. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
