Water

If the world's water fitted into a bucket, only one teaspoonful would be drinkable.

About 1,460 teratonnes of water covers 71% of the Earth, yet 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, this is roughly one sixth of the world's population. This is primarily because the world's population tripled in the 20th century; the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50%.

Search for drinking water is an enormous stress on persuasion of economic activities; to quote, 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa. Households in rural Africa spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, and it is generally women who are burdened with the task. The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 20 kg, the same as the average UK airport luggage allowance. The average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. The average European would use 200 litres and North Americans would use 400 litres per day. But, 2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation; roughly two-fifths of the world's population

Statistics source: WaterAid