World Water Day

People in the developed world think of diarrhea as a mild nuisance. But for most of the world it can be a death sentence. Sanitation related diseases —  mainly diarrhea —  kills over 4,000 children around the world each day, meaning it kills more children than malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB…combined.

Today is World Water Day, so this is a good opportunity to talk about how it is that people die everyday for lack of a clean glass of water. Here is a useful primer from GOOD.

 

And Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is on the front lines of the global water crisis, offers these remarks. The United Nations also has an exhaustive report, called “Water for Life” that offers some facts, figures and charts that explain the scale of the issue. What is most striking about this report is the extent to which it shows that access to water and sanitation has knock-on effects for a host of other related social issues — from gender equality to agricultural development and more. Have a skim.

Water for Life

UPDATE: And here are Secretary Clinton’s remarks from earlier today.