(Clean) drinking water as a scarce commodity?

Bacteria instead of vitamins?

While you are indulging in an energy drink, others are involuntarily absorbing dangerous bacteria from the only available water source - if they even have access to water. Approximately 3.5 million people die each year on account of water shortage and polluted drinking water.

Without water there is no life.

While some regions are being buried under floods of water, others are suffering from increasing aridity. In both cases, the affected people face the same problem: a lack of clean drinking water. Furthermore, they often lack water for sanitary uses as well as for agriculture.

Humans can survive up to four weeks without nutrition, but only three to four days without drinking water. Lack of fluids dehydrates our bodies and leads to significant health problems such as back pain, a weak immune system and possibly even heart attacks.
It is not only the direct lack of water that leads to problems. If not enough water is available, the respective country's nutritional situation would be gravely affected.

 

Without water, agriculture would not be possible and there would be a lack of grazing areas for livestock farming. This would not only result in a lack of staple foods such as fruit, vegetables and crops, but would also lead to a deficit in dairy produce and meat.

The lack of water supply also results in a lack of processing water, which would mean that sanitary facilities could not be operated.

drinking dirty water

Water on its own is not enough

Approximately 3.5 million people die each year on account of water shortage and polluted drinking water. Water derived from springs and wells is not always clean and can be harmful. Diarrhoea and intestinal worms are just some of the consequences of drinking polluted water and a lack of hygiene.

"Have you had enough to drink today?" Two to three litres of fluids should be consumed each day - excluding coffee and alcohol."

Unequal distribution of water on the blue planet

One would believe that our planet has enough water reserves seeing as three quarters of the earth's surface is covered with water, which corresponds to approximately 1.386 billion cubic kilometres. However, 96.5 percent of which is made up of salt water. Of the remaining 3.5 percent of fresh water, approximately half is made up of ice and snow. Approximately the same amount is saved as groundwater and is the source of most of our drinking water. [Quelle: bernerzeitung.ch]

Waterfacts

Water consumption in real life

People in industrial countries require between 100 and 200 litres of water a day, and that is just for their domestic use. In contrast, people in Africa have to make do with 20 litres of water a day and in Nigeria it's about 16 litres. This approximately equals the amount of water we Europeans have used in a shower after 1.5 minutes.[Quelle: unsere-welt.net]

50 Liter Wasser

In developing countries, millions of girls and women must walk up to 15 kilometres a day to provide their families and themselves with water, which is most often polluted. This requires several hours on foot just to reach the nearest water source and to return home.

"A cup of coffee requires 140 litres of water, a cafe latte requires 200 litres, which is more than a bathtub full of water."

Water deficiency also has broader implications

If there is no running drinking water, people are required to obtain water in a different manner. In Nigeria, for example, water can be bought in plastic bags. Many developing countries also consume an enormous amount of bottled water. Places that lack water, often also lack waste disposal infrastructure.

The no longer needed plastic bags and bottles often land in rivers, brooks and channels or even in wells, where the dangerous plastic and numerous pathogenic agents spread. This polluted water often reaches the groundwater, which is then used to irrigate fields and crops. The pathogens then enter the agricultural sector and subsequently the groceries which are then consumed by the people, thus concluding the circle.


"Approximately 800 million people also lack water for sanitary facilities."

Child with dirty water

We want to bring people one step closer to water

To combat the uneven distribution of water across thehttps://www.greenfinity.foundation/en/donations world and to grant people from disadvantaged regions access to clean water, we have started our well construction projects. We can therefore make a contribution to people's health and significantly improve their quality of life.

125 wells have been built in Brazil since the start of the project "Water for Bahia". Each well grants up to 15 families access to water and thereby greatly facilitates their lives. Two schools in Nigeria have been granted access to water for the students and school's everyday use, thanks to the construction of a solar well and the renovation of the school's own well.

Would you also like to help people receive access to water? Then support us and our well construction projects!