Creating A Thirst-Free World
Living in the UAE, where we are just one twist of the tap away from clean drinking water, it takes a minute to absorb that there are parts of the world where people are dying due to lack of access to clean water. Let’s take a look at the statistics. World Health Organization (WHO) figures show that a child dies every 21 seconds from a water-related illness and 9,863 people die every day from thirst and water-related diseases. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 reveals that 783 million people, or 11 per cent of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water.
As mind-numbing as these figures are, the issues are mainly concentrated in waterdeprived regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 40 per cent of the population lives without improved drinking water. It is noteworthy that the current water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access.
