Water: saviour and killer
Water is Life! But it can be a killer too. Access to clean water and sanitation is one of the most important guarantees of good health. Dirty water on the other hand can harbour serious illnesses and diseases.
At any one time, close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. Children are especially at risk as their bodies are less developed than adults', and so less able to resist illness. Many children miss school because of illnesses caused by problems with water and sanitation.
For more information on water and health see a UNICEF factsheet
Did you know?
Water can be fresh but never new. All the water in the world, in the ice caps, the oceans, the clouds, in the rivers and under the ground, is about a billion years old. There’s always been the same stock of water on Earth, it just moves around the planet, changing to ice or seawater or rain.
People can move it around too, but – we can’t get any more of it! We’ll just have to use our water stock carefully. And the tiny percentage of the Earth’s water that humans can drink – about 3% is fresh water – is ancient too. It could just be that a dinosaur once drank your next gulp of water!
