20 Interesting and Useful Water Facts
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1.
Roughly
70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.
2.
At
birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
3.
A
healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
4.
Drinking
too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication
occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an
imbalance of water in the brain.
5.
Water
intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic
performance.
6.
While
the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this
water must be consumed in the liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item
provides some water to the body.
7.
Soft
drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain
caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling
to necessary locations in the body.
8.
Pure
water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.
9.
Water
dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water
carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
10.
Somewhere
between 70 and 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
11.
Much
more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s
surface.
12.
The
earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses
or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of
years ago is still present today.
13.
The
total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
14.
Of
all the water on the earth, humans can used only about three tenths of a
percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers,
rivers, and freshwater lakes.
15.
The
United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
16.
The
United States uses nearly 80 percent of its water for irrigation and
thermoelectric power.
17.
The
average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water
per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this
water.
18.
Approximately
85 percent of U.S. residents receive their water from public water facilities. The
remaining 15 percent supply their own water from private wells or other
sources.
19.
By
the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its
total water amount.
20.
The
weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from
water, not fat.
10 Reasons to Drink Water
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1.
Water
is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for
about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
2.
Water
helps to maintain healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating
appetite.
3.
Water
leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is
actually mild dehydration.
4.
Drinking
adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of certain types of cancers,
including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer.
5.
For
a majority of sufferers, drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or
back pain.
6.
Water
leads to overall greater health by flushing out wastes and bacteria that can
cause disease.
7.
Water
can prevent and alleviate headaches.
8.
Water
naturally moisturizes skin and ensures proper cellular formation underneath
layers of skin to give it a healthy, glowing appearance.
9.
Water
aids in the digestion process and prevents constipation.
10.
Water
is the primary mode of transportation for all nutrients in the body and is
essential for proper circulation.
Millions
lack safe water
345 million
without water access in:
Africa
Africa
More than 3.4 million
people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly
all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.3
Lack of access to
clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet
crashing every four hours.1
Of the 60 million
people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal
settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.6
780 million people
lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.2
"[The water and
sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims
through guns." 7
An American taking a
five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing
country slum uses for an entire day.7
Over 2.5X more people
lack water than live in the United States.2
More people have a
mobile phone than a toilet.2,4,5
Resource Links
1.
Estimated with data
from Diarhhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done.
UNICEF, WHO 2009
2.
Estimated with data
from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and
Sanitation. (2012). Progress on
Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2012 Update.
3.
World Health
Organization (WHO). (2008). Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of
interventions to protect and promote health; Updated Table 1: WSH deaths by region, 2004.
4.
International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2011). The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures
5.
United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA). (2011). State of World Population 2011, People and possibilities in a world of 7 billion
6.
UN Water. (2008). Tackling a
global crisis: International Year of Sanitation 2008
7.
United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP). (2006). Human
Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water
crisis
8.
Map data sourced from "Progress
on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2010 Update." WHO/UNICEF
Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.
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