10 Water Facts we should all know
about water
Dr. Sharda Mahabir
FACT NO. 1: WATER IS A UNIVERSAL SOLVENT
 Water dissolves more
substances than any
other liquid.
 Wherever it travels,
water carries
chemicals, minerals,
and nutrients with it.
FACT NO. 2: WATER IS NEUTRAL
 Pure water (solely hydrogen
and oxygen atoms) has a
neutral pH of 7, which is neither
acidic nor basic.
FACT NO. 3: FRESHWATER IS SCARCE
 Three percent of the World’s
water is Freshwater
 If the entire world’s water were fit
into a 4 liter jug, the fresh water
available for us would equal only
about one tablespoon
 Only 0.007 percent of the planet’s
water is available to fuel and feed
its 6.8 billion people
FACT NO. 4: THERE IS NO NEW WATER
 In a 100-year period, a water
molecule spends 98 years in
the ocean, 20 months as ice,
about 2 weeks in lakes and
rivers, and less than a week in
the atmosphere.
FACT NO. 5: WE ARE WATER
FACT NO. 6: YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT WATER
 A person can live about a
month without food, but only
about a week without water.
 It takes about 12 gallons per
day to sustain a human
FACT NO. 7:
FOOD
COSTS
WATER
About 6,800
gallons of water
is required to
grow a day’s
food for a family
of four.
FACT NO. 8: WATER IS PART OF EVERYTHING
 It takes an estimated 39,090
gallons of water to make a car.
 Takes 13 gallons of water to make
a gallon of paint.
 t takes around 1,800 gallons of
water to grow enough cotton to
produce just one pair of jeans.
 One Ton of . . .
Steel: 62,000 gallons of water
Cement: 1,360 gallons
 In order to process a single barrel
of beer (32 gallons of booze),
1,500 gallons of water are sucked
down.
 One Pound of . . .
Plastic: 24 gallons
Synthetic Rubber: 55 gallons
FACT NO. 9:
WATER IS HEALTH
•
Unsafe water kills 200 children
every hour.
•
80% of all illness in the
developing world is water
related.
•
748 million people in the
world do not have access to
an improved source of
drinking water
•
Some 1.8 billion people
worldwide drink water that is
contaminated with feces.
FACT NO. 10: WATER IS SCARCE
 Two-thirds of the world’s
population is projected to face
water scarcity by 2025, according
to the United Nations.
 Household leaks can waste more
than 1 trillion gallons annually
nationwide. That’s equal to the
annual household water use of
more than 11 million homes.
 A leaky faucet that drips at the
rate of one drip per second can
waste more than 3,000 gallons per
year.