More
than 1
billion
people
lack access
to clean
fresh drinking
water.
Nearly
two and
a half
billion
people
lack adequate
sanitation
services.
Preventable
water-related
diseases
kill an
estimated
20,000
children
a day. Tens
of millions
of people
have been
forced
to leave
their homes
and land
to make
way for
the reservoirs
behind
new dams
due to
the situation
of them,
the availability
of the
water pumps
to efficiently
pump and
transport
fresh water
to village
water tanks
is impaired
due to
soil erosion.
Whilst
more than
20% of
all fresh-water
fish species
are endangered
because
of the
destruction
of the
free flowing
river ecosystems
by the
dams.
Many irrigation
practices
degrade
soil quality
by increasing
both soil
erosion
and its
salinity
while ground
water aquifers
are being
pumped
down faster
(as well
as polluted)
than can
be naturally
replenished.
Although
approx.
90% of
all fresh
water use
is for
agriculture,
almost
50% of
it (treating fields) never
yields any
food crops due to the heat evaporation of the exposed flood water / moisture, such that it leaves the soil with toxic salt deposits that in turn stunt the crops healthy growth patterns.
While new industrial technologies and efficient sanitation and infrastructure are helping to conserve or recycle more water efficiently, modest improvements in agriculture can proportionately free up huge quantities of water.
Traditional irrigation systems can require between 30% and 50% more water than through the use of drip systems. 97% of the world water is too saline and only 0.5% of the total water on Earth is fresh water, available for human use. The balance is held up in ice caps / glaciers or in deep underground aquifers and currently out of reach.
An area the size of England and Wales of rainforest and woodland disappears worldwide annually.
Countless fauna and flora goes with it, taking possible life-saving properties with it. One quarter of the Earth`s land is degraded dryland. One billion people, one fifth of Humanity, are at risk from loss of productivity, malnutrition and disease. When 70% of the human body`s skin is lost through burning, the condition is usually fatal. Likewise, if an eco-system is approx. 70% destroyed, the remainder is usually unable to sustain the environment needed for its own survival resulting in increased sandstorms, which in turn cause breathing difficulties for people and wildlife living downwind.
Between 1979 and 1989, the annual destruction of rainforests increased significantly with almost 21 million hectares of land degraded, and 24 billion tons of topsoil lost to an ever-increasing population. The climactic effects are felt in temperate developed countries of the North by increasing strain imposed from absorbing refugees and supporting foreign aid increases. James Lovelock, originator of the famous " Gaia Hypothesis " said, " When the forests go, the rain goes with them .... " Such are the consequences of both deforestation and desertification.