Got H₂O: Worldwide Water Access

2O: Worldwide Water Access description: Access to clean, affordable drinking water and sanitation is vital to the health of the global community. This graph from the World Health Organization plots sanitation access by water access in rural areas for countries all around the globe; each dot on the graph represents a single country. Although urban areas in these countries generally have more access to water and sanitation, a large number still fall below 80 percent. Water related diseases, which could be controlled by access to safe water and sanitation, remain a burden on health especially in Africa and Asia. Diarrheal diseases and malaria were responsible for 1.8 and 1.3 million deaths worldwide in 2002. The Millenium Development Project has a target of reducing the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water in half by 2015.

While bottled water might seem like a healthy alternative, its purity is debatable. The NRDC conducted a four year study and found, "there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap." Furthermore, bottled water can be 10,000 times more expensive; in the United States imported designer water can cost as much as $2.50 a liter, which translates to $10.00 a gallon. (That's more than gas prices!)]]>