Give Me Water

I think the next big environmental crisis to gain traction world wide is going to be the lack of available clean water. As the world population continues to grow way too big for humans to support, water shortages are becoming common even in the wealthier developed nations with smaller population. I even hear about it in the U.S. now. There are "water shortage" (actually, just temporary weather related ones but real ones nonetheless) stories in the U.S. media frequently . And in the overpopulated third world clean water to drink and bathe in is almost a rarity now.

UNICEF says that more than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world. I suspect that  in time tend will grow in more developed countries too. It's already so bad that a lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours. Yet, we don't hear much about it.  That's probably true to some extent because all our water problems are the result of overpopulation stressing water sources, and in this age it isn't politically correct to mention that humans should stop having more babies than can be cared for by the parents.

Here are a few stats from the United Nations about the growing water problem.
- Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.
- 780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.
- The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
- The majority of water consumed world wide is never treated, which may explain why the majority of illnesses world wide is caused by fecal matter in it.
- More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.

I had to toss in the cell phone stat  not only because I hate those things, but because it shows the priority our tech addicted world places on them. I wonder if any of those cell phone addicts believe a cell phone app will provide clean water.  Good luck to them with that dream.  Anyway, I thought I would mention the crisis of a lack of clean water before you gulped down another bottle of it. Cheers!