Water...the facts

• Some 1.1 billion people, or 18 % of the word’s population, lack access to safe drinking water, and over 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.

• More than 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die each year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation.

• A report released in early October 2009 by the Water Research Commission of South Africa found that South Africa has 4% less water than 20 years ago.

• Rand Water is predicting that demand for water in South Africa will outstrip supply by 2025. It also believes that Gauteng is potentially facing a water shortage as early as 2013.

• In Cape Town the scenario is not much better with a water shortage prediction by 2016

• If South Africans continue with their wasteful water practices, there simply will not be enough water to meet the country's future needs and, we may have to start paying even more for water!

• South Africans can change the scenario by changing their behavior towards water usage and becoming water wise and savvy about rainwater harvesting.