HARD TRUTH ABOUT WATER CRISIS LOOMING

1. By 2025, more than 2.8 billion people will live in 48 countries facing water stress or water scarcity, a recently revised United Nations medium population projected. Of these 48 countries, 40 are either in the Near East and North Africa or in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the next two decades population increase alone—not to mention growing demand per capita—is projected to push all of the Near East into water scarcity. By 2050 the number of countries facing water stress or scarcity will rise to 54, and their combined population to 4 billion people—40% of the projected global population of 9.4 billion
2. The 20 countries of the Near East and North Africa face the worst prospects. The Near East is the most water-short region in the world. In fact, the entire Near East “ran out of water” in 1972, when the region’s total population was 122 million, according to Tony Allan, a University of London expert on water resources. Since then, the region has withdrawn more water from its rivers and aquifers every year than is being replenished. Currently, for example, Jordan and Yemen withdraw 30% more water from groundwater aquifers every year than is replenished. Also, Israel’s annual water use already exceeds its renewable supply by 15%.
3. Saudi Arabia presents one of the worst cases of unsustainable water use in the world. This extremely arid country now must mine fossil groundwater for three-quarters of its water needs. Fossil groundwater depletion in Saudi Arabia has been averaging around 5.2 billion cubic meters a year
4. Of 14 countries in the Near East, 11 are already facing water scarcity. In five of these countries the populations are projected to double within the next two decades. Water is one of the major political issues confronting the region’s leaders. Since virtually all rivers in the Near East are shared by several nations, current tensions over water rights could escalate into outright conflicts, driven by population growth and rising demand for an increasingly scarce resource.
5. In many countries, the water problem is the primary reason people are unable to rise out of poverty. Women and children bear the burdens disproportionately, often spending six hours or more each day fetching water for their families and communities.
6. 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water, roughly one-sixth of the world’s population.
7. 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
8. Half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water related illnesses.
9. In the past 10 years, diarrhea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II.
10. Despite the size of the problem, we have made little progress against it. There were only 181 million fewer people living without safe drinking water in rural settings in 2004 (899 million) vs. 1990 (1.08 billion)
11. 50 percent of people on earth lack adequate sanitation. Another way to look at it: Nearly half of the world’s population fails to receive the level of water services available 2,000 years ago to the citizens of ancient Rome.
12. Some 6,000 children die every day from disease associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene – equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.
13. The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is six kilometers.
14. Tens of millions of children cannot go to school as they must fetch water every day. Drop out rates for adolescent girls, who even make it that far, skyrocket once they hit puberty as there are no private sanitation facilities at their schools.
15. 80 percent of diseases in the developing world are caused by contaminated water
16. Waterborne diseases (the consequence of a combination of lack of clean water supply and inadequate sanitation) cost the Indian economy 73 million working days per year.
17. It is estimated that pneumonia, diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria, which account for 20% of global disease burden, receive less than one percent of total public and private funds devoted to health research.
18. If we did nothing other than provide access to clean water, without any other medical intervention, we could save 2 million lives a year.
19. The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
20. In China, India and Indonesia, twice as many people are dying from diarrheal diseases as from HIV/AIDS.
21. The average person in the developing world uses 2.64 gallons of water a day. The average person in theUnited Kingdom uses 35.66 gallons of water per day. The average person in the United States uses between 100 and 175 gallons every day at home.
22. More than 40 million hours are wasted each year in Africa alone from women and children gathering water.
23. In 1998, 308,000 people died from war in Africa, but more than two million (six times as many) died from diarrheal disease.
24. It is estimated that 5.3 billion people, two-thirds of the world’s population, will suffer from water shortages by 2025.
25. Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.

It is time to accumualate water related stocks when they are not in play now .
The leader in water solutions and waste water management  like Hyflux is too undervalued now . With cash hoard of over $420 million .
And with record contract value of $2.1 BILLION on hand now since company's founding/inception .
 
BUY AND ACCUMULATE .