Water: liquid gold | Photo: Walter-Wilhelm/Creative Commons

On March 22, planet Earth celebrates World Water Day. And there's so much we need to do to save and defend the liquid gold.

Water is part of our lives. In developing countries, we never miss the water, but that doesn't mean we respect the natural resource.

That's why we must learn how to improve our daily habits and practices.

Unfortunately, the world's poorest regions are still struggling to get enough water to survive.

We depend on water to drink, stay hydrated, and survive, but we also need H2O for basic hygiene needs and sanitation.

Universal access to clean water is, therefore, Humanity's ultimate challenge.

Let's take a look at some reasons why water is a critical issue on our planet:

1. Water is health - clean hands can save your life;

2. More water is used to manufacture a car than to fill a swimming pool;

3. To produce two steaks, you need 15,000 liters of water;

4. Every day, women spend millions of hours carrying water;

5. The human body is made of between 50 and 65 percent water;

6. A person needs 20 liters of water per day to take care of basic hygiene needs and basic food hygiene, according to the World Health Organization (WHO);

7. Up to 748 million people do not have access to an improved source of drinking water;

8. Up to 2.5 billion do not use an improved sanitation facility;

9. The return on investment of attaining universal access to improved sanitation has been estimated at $5.5 to $1;

10. To cover every person worldwide with safe water and sanitation is estimated to cost $107 billion a year over a five-year period;

11. Global water demand for manufacturing is expected to increase by 400 percent from 2000 to 2050;

12. Worldwide hydropower accounts for 16 percent of global electricity production;

13. Each American uses 7,500 liters of water per day - mostly for food;

14. One liter of water is needed to irrigate one calorie of food;

15. Irrigation takes up to 90 percent of water withdrawn in some developing countries;

16. Producing one kilogram of rice, for example, requires about 3,500 liters of water, while one kilogram of beef some 15,000 liters;

17. Ten liters of water are used to make one sheet of paper;

18. Ninety-one liters are used to make 500 grams of plastic;

19. Agriculture is the largest user of water, accounting for 70 percent of total withdrawal;

20. Nine million people are without water access in developed countries;

21. More than 840,000 people die from water-related diseases each year;

22. America's demand for bottled water consumes more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year;

23. About 95 percent of the water entering our homes goes down the drain;

24. More than 25 percent of drinkable water you use in your home is used for flushing the toilets;

25. One dollar can provide clean water for a child in a developing world for an entire year;

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