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• "The 21st century is the century in which the overriding problem is one of water quality and management".
  

• "Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the WATER CRISIS is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth".
  

• "No region will be spared from the impact of this crisis which touches every facet of life, from the health of children to the ability of nations to secure food for their citizens".

• "The global water crisis will reach unprecedented levels in the years ahead with growing per capita scarcity of water in many parts of the developing world".
  

• "Water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change".

• "For some, the world water crisis means having to walk long distances every day to fetch enough drinking water - clean or unclean - just to get by. For others,it means suffering from avoidable malnutrition or disease caused by drought, flood or inadequate sanitation. Still others experience it as a lack of funds, institutions or knowledge to solve local problems of water use and allocation".
  

• Industries already affected by water crisis, warns UN, January 31, 2008 ; "The challenge of water has been with us for a long time. So why has it suddenly propelled itself onto the radar of senior industry figures and in the past few days become a top agenda item for multi-national corporations?"

• "Unsafe drinking water exacts a heavy toll on communities, families, and children worldwide. "Over five thousand children die every day from simple diarrhea, a water-borne affliction". Millions of lives can be saved or transformed by simply focusing on improving water quality in communities we live and work in".
  

• "When Americans were recently asked in a Gallup poll to rank the top 12 environment concerns from predefined categories such as global warming; the top four were related to water quality, with pollution of drinking water as the top concern".

• "At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages within the next five years, according to U.S. government estimates".

• "The accelerating depletion of aquifers means this day may come soon, creating potentially unmanageable food scarcity. Falling Water Tables, Falling Harvests, June 2008".
  

• "WHO Warns, polluted water may kill 1,6 million people" (polluted water kills 4,000 people daily):
  

Source: Earthtimes: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/214266,who-warns-polluted-water-may-kill-16-million-people--summary.html

• The water crisis will worsen in the years ahead with growing per capita scarcity of water.

• Water supplies are falling while the demand is dramatically growing at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water world-wide per person is expected to drop by a third.

• Many countries and territories are already in a state of crisis.

• Climate change will account for an estimated 20% of this increase in global water scarcity.

• The water crisis is set to worsen despite continuing debate over the very existence of such a crisis.

• Waste is dumped every day into rivers, lakes and streams.

• One litre of wastewater pollutes about eight litres of freshwater.

• Financing the Millennium development goals will probably be one of the most important challenges that the international community will have to face over the next 15 years.

• The world water development report ranks 122 countries according to the quality of their water as well as their ability and commitment to improve the situation. The list of countries with the best quality is headed by Finland followed by Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Sweden and France.

• The future of many parts of the world looks bleak; in reference to projected population growth, which will continue to be a driving factor in the water crisis.

• Water consumption has almost doubled in the last 50 years. A child born in the developed world consumes 30 to 50 times the water resources of one in the developing world. Meanwhile water quality continues to worsen.

• Water use and management – from the growth of cities to the threat of looming water wars; the water crisis - be it the number of children dying of disease or polluted rivers - is a crisis of governance and a lack of political will to manage the resource wisely.

• Globally, the challenge lies in raising the political will to implement water-related commitments. Water professionals need a better understanding of the broader social, economic and political context, while politicians need to be better informed about water resource issues. Otherwise water will continue to be an area for political rhetoric and lofty promises instead of sorely needed actions.

• Almost all living things on Earth need water to live, yet humans pollute and waste it recklessly.

• More than a fifth of the world’s population doesn’t have enough: it is likely people will go to war over water in your lifetime.

• Some areas have far too much water and suffer from floods, like Bangladesh and the flood plains of the Mississippi in the United States.

• Other areas, like Africa and West Asia, suffer severe droughts. The problem of water availability is most serious in Africa and West Asia.

• If water consumption continues at its present rate, by 2025 two out of three people will not have enough water for their basic needs.

• Worldwide, polluted water affects the health of 1.2 billion people and contributes to the death of 15 million children under five every year. For example, in Asia, one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water and one in two have no access to hygienic sanitation.

• Mining and industry pollute rivers with deadly chemicals. Farmers spray crops with pesticides and fertilisers which are washed into rivers and lakes. In many parts of the world, people use rivers as open sewers and garbage dumps. Near coasts, when too much water is taken from aquifers (big underground reservoirs of fresh water), sea water seeps in and makes the water salty and undrinkable.

• Brown water running out of tap is a common problem in many developing countries. It has led to the outbreak of cerebral meningitis and hookworm.

• Meeting the basic needs; recognizing that access to safe and sufficient water, and sanitation are the basic human needs, and are essential to health, and well-being.

• Securing the food supply; enhancing food security, particularly of the poor and vulnerable, through more efficient mobilization and use of water and the more equitable allocation of water for food production.

• Protecting ecosystems; ensuring the integrity of ecosystems through sustainable water resources management.

• Managing risks; promoting drinking water safety, and security from floods, droughts, pollution and other water hazards.

• Sharing water resources; promoting peaceful cooperation and developing synergies between different uses of water at all levels, whereever possible, within and - in the case of boundary and transboundary water resources - between concerned states, through sustainable river basin management or other appropriate approaches.

• Valuing water; managing water in a way that reflects its economic, social, environmental and cultural values in all uses, with a move torwards pricing water services to reflect the cost of their provision. This approach should account for the need for equity and the basic needs of the poor and the vulnerable.

• Governing water wisely; ensuring food governance, so that the involvement of the public and the interests of all stakeholders are included in the management of water resources.

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• As U.S. Fund for UNICEF volunteers, partners in safe drinking water awareness, we encourage you to support UNICEF's Tap Project to help improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Click here: www.Tapproject.org
  
  All the money raised through the Tap Project supports UNICEF's clean water programs. As the world's leading children's organization, UNICEF understands the critical role water plays in a child's survival. Currently, UNICEF provides access to safe water and sanitation facilities while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries. By 2015, UNICEF's goal is to reduce the number of people without safe water and basic sanitation by 50 percent.

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