SUSTAINABILITY - About Water

Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking
water (www.charitywater.org).
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water
contaminants (www.foodandwaterwatch.org).
• While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing
countries cannot find five (www.charitywater.org).
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims
through guns (http://www.water.org).
• According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more
than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles
contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic (http://www.nrdc.org/).
• Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil. ~
CBS News, FLOW.
• There are estimates that from five hundred thousand to seven million people get sick per
year from drinking tap water. ~ Erik Olson, Deputy Staff Director of Barbara Boxer’s
Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW), FLOW.
• California’s water supply is running out – it has about 20 years of water left in the state.
~ Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant and co-author of Blue Gold, National
Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, FLOW.
• There are over 116,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into public
water supply systems. ~ William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World,
FLOW.
• In Bolivia nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five. Most of
those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water. ~
Jim Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center in Bolivia, FLOW.
• The cost per person per year for having 10 liters of safe drinking water every day is just
$2 USD.
~ Ashok Gadgil, Senior Staff Scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
FLOW.
(fonte: www.flowthefilm.com)