Water is at the heart of our lives and ecosystems for drinking, farming, and washing. Globally, we use more than 9 billion cubic meters of water every year. Today, nearly 2 billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population, live in countries that are continuously water-stressed, while nearly half the global population live in potentially water scarce areas at least one month per year. This number could exceed 5 billion by 2050. Women and children are the most vulnerable when it comes to water quality, sanitation and access issues because they are frequently in charge of water collection. Every day, women and girls spend over 200 million hours gathering water, while hundreds of millions of children do not have access to proper and sanitary hand washing facilities that contribute to the spread of deadly diseases.
