Even today, more than a billion people in the world live without drinking water, even arriving at not having even 20 liters a day, which is the minimum quantity to satisfy basic needs such as washing, drinking and, every day, families, factories, farms struggle to survive without water. Why does this happen? Are there concrete actions that can be taken to address this water crisis?
Water in the world: still too much waste
Water waste is one of those problems that must be addressed in a very urgent way as we are talking about one of the fundamental resources for the survival of our planet.
Waste brings with it other problems such as:
- Drought
- complete absence in various parts of the world
The United Nations Organization has been fighting for years against the waste of this resource and, given the urgency, it instituted, in 1992, a World Water Day to tackle the huge current crisis.
Also called blue gold to underline its great economic value and for the health of each of us
March 22: World Water Day
WorldWaterDay is this the most used hashtag on March 22 every year, on the major social networks, the one that celebrates water and draws attention to the global water crisis trying to raise awareness and achieve what is the purpose of this World Day : water and sanitation for all by 2030.
One in five children dies from thirst or from diseases related to the consumption of unsafe water, 40% of the global population lives with availability problems that are at the root of 50 conflicts, 37 of which are armed
These are the data that emerge according to the data reported by the UN and placed at the center of the debates relating to water.
The water risk, known as Day Zero; the day we lose normal access to water reserves is estimated not to be too far off.
In the world, cities like Sao Paulo in Brazil and Cape Town in South Africa are already very close to this situation of total drought. Therefore, for the United Nations, its important to enhance water which is a fundamental resource from a food, cultural, health and environmental protection point of view.
Considering that only 2.5% of the water on earth is fresh, it becomes important and urgent to limit waste as much as possible.
Things to do to avoid waste
According to the WHO (World Health Organization), waste occurs when more than 50 liters of water are used per day.
In Italy, according to Istat data, the average is 245 liters per day where only 1% is used for drinking and the remainder (about 30 liters) is, however, wasted.
These data are sobering and need urgent solutions.
To avoid waste, a series of measures can be implemented to use as little water as possible:
- Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or while shampooing your hair
- Prefer the shower to the bath
- Pass the soap on your hands and turn on the tap only for rinsing
- To wash fruit and vegetables avoid being with open water: better to use a container and reuse the water to water the flowers for example
- Don't use too strong jets of water
- Always make sure that no pipes are leaking water
- Washing machine and dishwasher better to use them fully loaded
- Always avoid throwing in the drain material that can even slightly pollute or make purification difficult.
