World With More Phones Than Toilets Shows Water Challenge

Water is a necessity, but one that’s taken for granted. Randall Hackley, writing for Bloomberg about World Water Day, questions why the globe has 6 billion mobile phones when one out of three people do not have a toilet, and one out of seven lack access to safe drinking water. Water sanitation is a major contributing factor to high child mortality rates; more people die from sanitation-related diseases than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, Hackley reports. Water footprints around the globe are unbalanced: An American taking a 5-minute shower uses more water than the average urban person in many developing countries might use in an entire day, suggests one water analyst. The agriculture and energy sectors are major sources for water depletion, Hackley notes. Gaps in water infrastructure funding is being addressed through the so-called smart technologies in India, and countries like China with rising energy needs are making water infrastructure a long-term priority. – YaleGlobal