{"id":916,"date":"2011-12-13T13:29:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T18:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=916"},"modified":"2011-12-13T13:29:14","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T18:29:14","slug":"going-without-clean-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2011\/12\/13\/going-without-clean-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Without Clean Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h1><a href=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/2011\/12\/10\/going-without-clean-water\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Going Without Clean Water<\/a><\/h1>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newswatch-media.nationalgeographic.com\/files\/2011\/04\/ngshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"58\" height=\"58\" \/>Posted by\u00a0<a title=\"Posts by Tasha Eichenseher\" href=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/author\/teichenseher\/\">Tasha Eichenseher<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0National Geographic\u00a0<abbr title=\"2011-12-10T12:43:39+00:00\">December 10, 2011<\/abbr>\u00a0<a title=\"Comment on Going Without Clean Water\" href=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/2011\/12\/10\/going-without-clean-water\/#respond\" rev=\"post-30813\">Comments<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_30814\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?attachment_id=30814\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-30814\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Dragon Lake\" src=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/files\/2011\/12\/dragon_hires-480x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a>A frozen river leads to a frozen Dragon Lake in Siberia. Photo courtesy NASA.\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>This post is part of a National Geographic<a href=\"https:\/\/environment.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/freshwater\/\">\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/archives\/water-crisis\/\">news series<\/a>\u00a0on global water issues.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nWhen temperatures dropped to one degree Fahrenheit and my pipes froze this week, I was reminded of how lucky we are, under most circumstances, to be able to turn a valve and watch copious amounts of clean water flow into our sinks, showers, toilets, and washing machines.<br \/>\nIn the U.S., we use an average of 100 gallons each day for washing, cooking, cleaning, drinking, (and lawn watering).<br \/>\nThis doesn\u2019t account for the water that\u2019s required to grow our food, manufacture our computers, or refine the fuels we rely on to drive our cars and keep our homes, and water, warm.<br \/>\nIn other parts of the world, nearly 900 million people do not have access to the daily minimum water requirement of 5-13 clean and safe gallons, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unwater.org\/statistics.html\">United Nations<\/a>\u00a0(U.N.).<br \/>\nThirteen gallons of water in the U.S. is enough to flush the average toilet five times, or run the dishwasher once, or take an approximately 10-minute shower. (Learn more with National Geographic\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/environment.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/freshwater\/water-footprint-calculator\/\">waterfootprint calculator<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30815\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?attachment_id=30815\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-30815\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Clean Water\" src=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/files\/2011\/12\/sanigraphic1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"151\" \/><\/a>Courtesy U.N.\n<\/div>\n<p>Every other year, global water expert\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacinst.org\/about_us\/staff_board\/gleick\/\">Peter Gleick<\/a>\u00a0publishes a status report on the world\u2019s biggest water concerns\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwater.org\/\">The World\u2019s Water<\/a>. In the seventh volume, released in October, Gleick and his research team single out climate change and transboundary water management; global water quality, including threats from sewage, fossil fuels, and hydrological fracking; China\u2019s Dams; and U.S. water policy as potential problem areas.<br \/>\nWhen I interviewed Gleick about the report at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcrp-climate.org\/\">World Climate Research Programme<\/a>conference in Denver, he clearly pointed to a lack of access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities as the world\u2019s most alarming water problems.<br \/>\nAn estimated 2.5 billion people live without a toilet or safe and sustainable place to take care of business. And a child dies as a result of the water-borne illnesses that arise from poor sanitation every 20 seconds, according to the U.N.<br \/>\n\u201cEvery year, more people die from the consequences of unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war,\u201d said Gleick, co-founder and president of the California-based environmental think tank\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacinst.org\/\">the Pacific Institute<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat\u2019s most alarming is our continued failure to meet basic water and sanitation needs,\u201d and our failure to meet the Millennium Develop Goals for water, Gleick said.<br \/>\nThe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/millenniumgoals\/\">Millennium Development Goals<\/a>\u00a0are a series of economic development targets set by the U.N. in an effort to alleviate poverty around the world. One of the eight goals is related to environmental sustainability and aims to halve the number of people globally who lack access to adequate and safe drinking water and sanitation.<br \/>\n<strong>Quality vs. Quantity<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><\/strong>We\u2019re nearing the 2015 deadline for meeting the Millennium goals, and while we\u2019re more on target with drinking water access, sanitation goals seem \u201cto be out of reach,\u201d according to the U.N.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30816\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?attachment_id=30816\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-30816\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Sanitation\" src=\"https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/files\/2011\/12\/san2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"203\" \/><\/a>Courtesy U.N.\n<\/div>\n<p>But the two go hand in hand. \u201cWater quality is often the lonely stepchild of more extensive work on water quantity and availability, yet some of the most serious water challenges are related to contamination,\u201d World\u2019s Water authors explain. \u201cIndeed, many water-availability problems have, at their root, water quality origins.\u201d<br \/>\nNearly 80 percent of sewage around the globe is flushed, untreated, directly into lakes, rivers, and oceans, according to a 2010\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/PDF\/Clearing_the_Waters.pdf\">report<\/a>\u00a0from the U.N. Environment Programme and the Pacific Institute.<br \/>\nAccording to Gleick and his colleagues, there is a large economic cost associated with poor water quality. They write that developing countries with access to clean water and sanitation services experience faster economic growth and fewer economic losses from illness and death.<br \/>\nFor every U.S. dollar invested in drinking water and sanitation services, there is a projected $3 to $34 in economic development returns, according to the U.N.<br \/>\nMeeting the Millennium Development Goals related to water could save 322 million working days, or $750 million a year, lost to sickness and $7 billion in health care costs, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.siwi.org\/\">Stockholm International Water Institute<\/a>.<br \/>\nAs we\u2019ve heard this week and last from reports coming out of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unfccc.int\/meetings\/durban_nov_2011\/meeting\/6245.php\">U.N. Climate Change Conference<\/a>\u00a0in Durban, South Africa, the world\u2019s water landscape could soon look significantly different, threatening health and food security, and increasing the risk of conflict.<br \/>\nMore than 1.4 billion people already live in river basins where the use of water exceeds minimum recharge levels, according to the U.N.<br \/>\nBy 2025 two-thirds of the world\u2019s population will live in water-stressed regions as a result of unsustainable water use, population growth, and climate change.<br \/>\nGleick and other water and development experts say we need to keep the channels open for improved education, monitoring, leadership, and enforcement\u2026 that we need to ramp up funding for these efforts beyond a frozen, glacial pace. When we turn on the tap, investments in water should flow.<br \/>\n\u201cWe haven\u2019t been committing resources or efforts to meet those goals,\u201d Glieck said. \u201cWe need to do more.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>https:\/\/newswatch.nationalgeographic.com\/2011\/12\/10\/going-without-clean-water\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Going Without Clean Water Posted by\u00a0Tasha Eichenseher\u00a0of\u00a0National Geographic\u00a0December 10, 2011\u00a0Comments A frozen river leads to a frozen Dragon Lake in Siberia. Photo courtesy NASA. This post is part of a National Geographic\u00a0website\u00a0and\u00a0news series\u00a0on global water issues. When temperatures dropped to one degree Fahrenheit and my pipes froze this week, I was reminded of how lucky&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Going Without Clean Water - Alex Prud&#039;homme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2011\/12\/13\/going-without-clean-water\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Going Without Clean Water - Alex Prud&#039;homme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Going Without Clean Water Posted by\u00a0Tasha Eichenseher\u00a0of\u00a0National Geographic\u00a0December 10, 2011\u00a0Comments A frozen river leads to a frozen Dragon Lake in Siberia. Photo courtesy NASA. This post is part of a National Geographic\u00a0website\u00a0and\u00a0news series\u00a0on global water issues. 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