• Grey Water Footprint: water volume necessary to dilute pollutant loads back down to or below maximum. concentration

• Blue Water Footprint: consumption of water from groundwater and surface water.

• Green Water Footprint: volume of rainwater consumed.

A Global Overview

Globally, 785 million individuals lack access to clean drinking and safe potable water. Each passing day, more than 800 children die from dirty water use, due to diarrhoea caused by poor/unsafe water infested with lethal bacteria, sanitation and hygiene and scarce or unreliable water and sanitation facilities in many communities around the world. The WHO estimates that about 2 billion people have no option but to drink water contaminated by excrement, exposing them to diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A and dysentery.

For some context:

• Dysentery: strong stomach cramps, diarrhoea and blood in feces

• Cholera: can cause death if untreated, dehydration, Kidney Failure

• Hepatitis A: kidney failure=poor immune system

Infant mortality. According to the UN, diarrhoeal diseases linked to lack of hygiene cause the death of about 1,000 children a day worldwide. A reduction of about one-third of global biodiversity is estimated to be a consequence of the degradation of freshwater ecosystems mainly due to pollution of water resources and aquatic ecosystems

The main contributing factors and causes of water scarcity, pollution and contamination observed across various regions in the globe are the following:

• Industrial pollutants and waste

• Over-consumption, excessive use of water and slow replenishment of natural water resources

• Marine dumping, i.e. the expulsion of waste/sewage into water resources.

• Overpopulation leading to excessive demand for water, more than can be met by natural or human supply.

• Run-off from agricultural operations, such as fertilisers and other un-wanted nutrients.

• Rising resource consumption in economies which are growing due to renewable and non-renewable resource

• Rich countries' rising per capita water consumption

Latin America and the Caribbean:

A third of Latin American and Caribbean waters are polluted as a consequence of severe scarcity and lack of sewage treatment. South America and the Caribbean produces 160 million tonnes of waste each year, equivalent to 12% of all waste produced around the world. According to UN Environment, this quantity is predicted to double by 2025. The data below describes the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean:

• Water contamination is one of the major causes of illness, disease and death for children across Latin America

• South America contains 30% of the world’s fresh water resources, however, South America has been fighting a water crisis, one that has irreversible health effects on children’s lives. The major contributor to the crisis is the fact that about less than 40% of the continent's water is left untreated and cleansed for safe human consumption and use, whereby polluted sources of water are released into water bodies such as ponds, lakes, seas and oceans which are then contaminated with human and animal waste, and transferred through water systems into many homes in Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Chile.

• Although Latin America accounts for only a fraction, 8% of the globe's entire population, many millions of people, roughly 36 million, live without access to clean or safe drinking water on a daily basis. In addition to this, approximately 110 million people do not have access to any form of sanitation facilities or services, specifically clean public toilets. The adverse effects and consequences of unsafe drinking water are extremely severe, as previous research data has shown that approximately each year two million south Americans, mostly children under the age of 5, die due to water-borne diseases as a result of severe water contamination in the region. (Harvard Review of Latin America, 2013).

• More specifically, poor quality of water sanitation services and unsafe drinking water due to the pollution of many water resources, causes diarrheal diseases in children in Latin America and the Caribbean. For example, in 2010 a research illustrated that 12,000 children under the age of 5 died due to diarrheal disease as a result of water contamination in Latin American and the Caribbean (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2016).

• In Latin and Central American nations such as Colombia, Honduras and Peru, there are no signs of proper water infrastructure systems of any sort whatsoever and children and families do not have any other option but to practice open defecation. Accessibility to sanitation systems is markedly low throughout rural regions in Latin American countries, and example of severe water scarcity in the region, with fewer than half of rural communities in Peru, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Bolivia having access to proper and safe sanitation stations/services.

• The Pan American Health Organization has estimated that almost 100,000 children in the Americas (the Caribbean and Latin America) under the age of 5 die from these environmental hazards every year (et al., 2015).

The Middle East and North Africa:

Contaminated water is a major threat among communities throughout Africa. Every hour, an estimated 115 people die in Africa from diseases linked to improper hygiene, poor sanitation, and contaminated water, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region is the most water scarce region of the world. By the year 2050, two-thirds of MENA nations could have less than 200 m³ of renewable water resources per capita per year.

• Middle East and North Africa's population more than doubled between 1970 and 2001, rising from 173 million people to 386 million people and reducing the average amount of fresh water available per capita by more than half, to 1,640 cubic meters per person per year.

• Major regional causes for water contamination and pollution in the Middle East have been identified as Industrial waste, Sewage and wastewater from cities and civilizations, Mining activities such as oil mining in the seas, Marine dumping, Accidental oil spills, The burning of fossil fuels and Chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

• Nearly 90% of sewage in Middle Eastern countries is discharged untreated and managed directly into water bodies such as the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Oman.

• As of now, The main causes of water scarcity in North Africa are physical and economic scarcity, rapid population growth, and growing climate change.

Switzerland(Now)

Switzerland is regarded as a haven for beautifully potable water, with a cumulative water footprint of 11000 Mega meters cubed per year. How is Switzerland doing a decent job of water maintenance? Let us find out.

• Switzerland's population continues to grow, but water consumption is going the other way

• Phosphates in Detergent has been banned

• About 97% of households are connected to an STP

• Industrial Filters have improved

• They have developed methods to identify contaminants like Antibiotics(a risk that still harrows our country), and even COVID!

It's internal water footprint(i.e. water consumed domestically and in internally consumed goods) is only about 18% of the cumulative figure, with an astonishing 82% of the same being the External Water Footprint(water imported into the country in virtual or other forms for consuming imports within the country)

Switzerland(Then)

Every victor has a violent past, even Switzerland. What was it like in the past? Well....

• The silk industry expansion in 1840-1900 caused copious pollution due to untreated effluents

• Swiss lakes "fell sick" due to eutrophication in 1825-1900. (Eutrophication involves a nutrient content surplus in lakes due to sewage outputs, particularly Phosphorus. The most substantial risk with this is that this surplus causes profuse algae growth, which then partake of the lake's oxygen content, leaving little for the habitat within the lake.)

..As two examples.

Now, the Swiss have had more than one century to find and solve their problems, and they are not destitute of them just yet either! Click this link to explore a comprehensive timeline of events around water development endeavours throughout the small country's history.