The Global Water Crisis

By Sibby Kim

The amount of water we have right now on earth is finite. The world's population continues to grow and so does our need for potable H2O. However, a third of the world's population is already living with a shortage of clean drinking water and by 2025 it is expected that two thirds of the world will be severely water stressed.

Over a billion people live in developing countries where accessing water could mean walking miles to fetch safe water, paying high prices to buy water, or suffering from food insecurity and the consequences of disease from drinking contaminated water.

The global water crisis has several manifestations including inadequate access to safe drinking water, inadequate access to H2O for sanitation and waste disposal, pollution of water resources, and even regional conflicts over scarce water resources.

The primary problem facing the global water crisis is that 96% of H2O is salt water and the remaining 4% is often contaminated and not safe to drink. Although there is only a small percentage of usable H2O, the U.N. development agency claims that there is enough drinking water for everyone if managed correctly. Coagulating particles, filtering, and treating water with chlorine are three simple steps that can save the 5,000 children that die each day from contaminated water and sanitation related diseases.

However, the costs associated with purchasing chlorine, paying people to maintain purification systems, and creating infrastructure to make clean water directly available to consumers is often too much for impoverished countries that are most in need of purified water. Removing salt from water requires reliable sources of energy to perform reverse osmosis and developing countries simply do not have the necessary power nor the funds for building a desalination plant, maintaining it, and training people to operate it.

Organizations such as Defy Thirst are combating the Global Water Crisis with innovative yet simplistic and cost-effective water filtration systems. By treating and managing the water available to individuals in developing countries, Defy Thirst has helped villages improve health, improve sanitation, and ultimately, save lives.

For more information on the organization mentioned visit http://defythirst.org

Sibby Kim is a biologist and economist who writes about topics pertaining to economic development, environmental sustainability, and humanitarian efforts.

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