Water Facts
Here are just a few amazing facts about water and the treatment of it:
- A quarter of the worlds population is without safe drinking water.
- Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for
drinking and cooking
- In the time it took you to read these first three facts another child
has just died in the developing world from unsafe drinking water.
- According to NASA the natural rotation of the Earth has been altered
slightly by some 10 trillion tons of water stored in reservoirs over the
past 40 years.
- Water makes up 75% of the human brain. 75% of trees are also made from
water!
- Water expands by 9% when it freezes, making it less dense, which is why
ice floats on water.
- You could live for a month without food, but you would be dead after a
week without water!
- In the United States forty-eight million people receive their drinking
water from private or household wells.
- 500,000 tons of pollutants pour into lakes and rivers each day in the US
alone.
- Once it evaporates, a water molecule spends around ten days in the air.
- 1 Gallon (approx 5 litres) of oil can cause an eight-acre oil slick if
spilled or dumped down a storm sewer!
- 97% of the worlds water is salty or otherwise undrinkable, 2% is stored
in glaciers and the ice caps, the remaining 1% is left for humanity's needs.
Cool Water Facts
- Our bodies are 70% WATER our planet is 70% WATER.
- A leaky tap that loses a drop per second loses 16 bathtubs full a month
and 10,000 litres a year.
- City dwellers in the 3rd world may pay up to 50 times as much for WATER
as city dwellers in Europe and America.
- Every 8 seconds a child dies from contaminated water.
- 38 million people have been displaced by 840,000 dams worldwide.
- 60% of the worlds rivers have been dammed.
- To ensure our basic needs, we all need 20 to 50 litres of water free
from harmful contaminants each and every day.
- A child born in the developed world consumes thirty to fifty times as
much water resources as one in the developing world.
- 1 billion people lack access to improved water supply
- 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
- Access to piped water through household connections
- Latin America and the Caribbean: 66%
- Asia: 49%
- Africa: 24%
- Access to sanitation linked to a sewage system:
- Latin America and the Caribbean: 66%
- Asia: 18%
- Africa: 13%
- Access to drinking water globally means providing services for about 1.9
billion people are required to gain access to improved sanitation, that is
an additional 125 million people each year (342,000/day) until 2015;
- In urban areas, more than 1 billion additional people will need access
to both water supply and sanitation over the next fifteen years in order to
meet the targets
Producing a typical lunch--hamburger, french fries, and a soft
drink--uses 1500 gallons of water. This includes the water needed to raise
the potatoes, the grain for the bun and the grain needed to feed the cattle,
and the production of the soda.
The natural rotation of the Earth has been altered slightly by the 10
trillion tons of water stored in reservoirs over the past 40 years, according to
NASA. For more information, link to
U.S. Water
News
A dry wash or ephemeral stream flows during and for short times after rain
or snowmelt. Other names for a dry wash include: draw, gully, swale, arroyo, and
gulch.
On August 2, Congress reauthorized the Safe Drinking Water Act. The
legislation toughens federal regulations that protect drinking water. The
bill authorizes $7.6 billion dollars over seven years to help improve
deteriorating water systems. The bill requires water authorities to disclose
what chemicals and bacteria are in drinking water. It requires authorities
to notify the public within 24 hours when a dangerous contaminant is found.
The bill also requires the EPA to establish more stringent standards to
fight cryptosporidium.
The Nile perch has wiped out nearly all the other species of fish in Lake
Victoria, Africa since its introduction in the 1960s.
Forty-eight million people in the United States receive their drinking
water from private or household wells.
In the United States, approximately 500,000 tons of pollutants pour
into lakes and rivers each day.
Nationwide, about 11% of pollution in rivers comes from storm sewers and
urban runoff.
Four quarts of oil can cause an eight-acre oil slick if spilled or
dumped down a storm sewer!
Wash your car in the car wash rather than in your driveway. Car washes
are connected to water treatment systems that can handle the oil and other
contaminants that rinse off of your car. If you wash your car in the
driveway, these chemicals run into storm sewers which may discharge directly
into a stream. Storm sewers are not equipped with the treatment facilities
to handle these pollutants.
Rime is the ice that forms when supercooled water droplets freeze on
contact with an object.
Fresh, uncompacted snow is usually 90-95 percent trapped air.
Ozone gas is the only known disinfectant that works against the
cryptosporidium parasite in drinking water.
Want to know how much an acre-foot of water is worth in your region?
Link to
U. S. Water News and find
out!
Once evaporated, a water molecule spends ten days in the air.
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