Water shortage in the world
- 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water, almost one sixth of the world population.
- According to United Nations forecasts, in 2025 the future of water will worsen, 1.8 billion people will live in areas with absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the world population will live with critical shortages of water.
- Water shortages also occur in areas with rivers and where rain falls, but the engineering of water to achieve an equitable distribution is inefficient.
- The lack of clean water to drink is not the sole cause in deaths around the world, lack of personal hygiene and ineffective water storage cause diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, cholera and some pests such as malaria and dengue.
- Every 20 seconds a child dies because of poor hygiene associated with water scarcity.
The problem with equal water distribution in public water systems
Every time someone flushes a toilet in a home without water saving devices, they consume the same amount of water that 1 in 6 persons worldwide consume for a day for basic needs like drinking, bathing, cooking, and cleaning their home.
Non-governmental organizations around the world in partnership with governments are working on water conservation as one of their priorities through sustainable development programs, such as those designed in DICONA.
DICONA identified that one of the major problems related to clean water shortage in the World is due to the inequitable distribution of resources by public water systems.
Most of the time this problem occurs because of the natural elevation of the territory, limiting the flow of water to households and establishments situated at a height greater than the one in the public water reserve.
In other cases the houses closest to the water reservoir or the injection site receive a greater amount of water due to a defect in the water distribution system, reducing the availability of the resource to more distant sites.
In both cases the system operator is obliged to inject the network much more water than necessary to try to ensure the supply to all parts of the city, providing high per capita consumption.
For example, in an imaginary city there is an average on water consumption of 260 liters per capita per day according to government statistics. But the reality is that because of the inequity in public supply some people receive 400 liters, and other persons receive 50 liters of water a day.
