Global Landscape

With water pollution increasing and the world’s population growing, access to clean water is growing more uncertain. Approximately 1 billion people around the world lack access to safe, clean drinking water, and 2.5 billion lack sanitation facilities.1 As global populations grow, demand for clean water soars, too.

Among some of the sobering statistics:

• Less than 3 percent of the Earth’s water is freshwater. Of that, less than 0.5 percent is accessible to plants, animals and humans.2
• Water use has been increasing at more than double the rate of human population growth.3
• By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.3
• At least 1.8 million children under age 5 die each year from water-related diseases.4