• Freshwater

    • Only a tiny fraction of Earth's water is freshwater, or water that we can drink. Freshwater is becoming a threatened natural resource in more and more places around the world.

    • Freshwater

  • Fresh water use

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  • globally, this year

    • We use a LOT of water

    Every year we use a massive 4 trillion cubic meters of freshwater. This amount is equivalent to 50 Olympic swimming pools every second. Or, it's comparable to if everyone on the planet would drink over 4 glasses of water…every single minute.

    Water is a precious resource

    The amount of freshwater on the planet amounts to only 3 percent of all water on the planet…and less than 1 percent of this is ready for human use.

    We are running out of it

    1.4 billion people already live in areas that are simply running out of water. And poor people are those suffering the most.

    ...and the challenge is only getting bigger

    The increase in the world's population highlights our need to solve the water problem. Compared to today, we will have to support an additional 2.7 billion people with water in 2050 requiring twice the current supply of water.

    What about bottled water?

    Bottled water often isn't such a good idea. It is thousands of times more expensive than tap water and most often not healthier or better tasting. Check out the Story of Stuff video on bottled water for more info on the negative effects.

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