Water Facts

Sometimes interesting - Sometimes disturbing

Read on to learn more about the water in your life.

Everything you ever wanted to know about water.

Did you know?

Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.

By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.

About 25,700 litres (6,800 gallons) of water is required to grow a day's food for a family of four.

A child dies every 8 seconds from water-related disease.

Groundwater can take a human lifetime just to traverse a mile.

A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water. If a human does not absorb enough water dehydration is the result.

Most of the earth's surface water is permanently frozen or salty.

If all the world's water were fit into a gallon jug, the fresh water available for us to use would equal only about one tablespoon

When water contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, it is called hard water. Hard water is not suited for all purposes water is normally used for.

An acre of corn will give off 15,000 litres (4,000 gallons) of water per day in evaporation.

A small drip from a faucet can waste as much as 75 litres of water a day.

Of all the water on earth, only 2.5% is fresh water.  Fresh water is either groundwater (0,5%), or readily accessible water in lakes, streams, rivers, etc. (0,01%).

As oceans are very wide and there are multiple to be found on earth, oceans store most of the earth's water. This is apparently 97% of the total amount of water on earth, 2% of which is frozen.

Human bones are 25% water.

Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water.

Today, at least 400 million people live in regions with severe water shortages.

It takes 450 litres (120 gallons) of water to produce one egg.

Bottled water can be up to 1000 times more expensive than tap water and it may not be as safe.

“Legally Safe” and “Totally Safe” mean two completely different things to the EPA.  The CWA (Clean Water Act) regulates 9 contaminants.  If tap water contains less than the maximum acceptable levels of those contaminants you water is legally safe.  Yet the EPA is investigating 10,000 others that are not regulated, known to be in tap water, with safety unknown.  Hence, the reason you should ‘treat’ “Legally Safe” water.

Two thirds of the water used in a home is used in the bathroom.

Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for drinking and cooking.

More than 2 billion people on earth do not have a safe supply of water.

The largest selling brand of bottled water (Aquifina) is treated tap water packaged by Pepsi.  Not to be outdone, Coke sells it under the label Dasani. 

70% of an elephant is water.

Groundwater supplies serve about 80% of the population, whereas up to 4% of usable groundwater is already polluted.

By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.

Each day, enough rain falls on the United States to cover the entire state of Vermont with 2 feet of water

Each day, U.S. water users withdraw enough water to fill a line of Olympic-size swimming pools that would reach around the world.

Water makes up a full 70 percent of your body mass.

You should drink enough to equal ½ your body weight in ounces – daily?  Thus, if you weight 140 lbs., drink 70 oz and if you weigh 200 lbs drink 100 oz.

It takes 7,000 litres (1,850 gallons) of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.

Soft drinks and coffee, although almost entirely water should avoid diuretics, such as caffeinated or alcoholic drinks.  Every six oz. of caffeine or alcohol requires an additional 10 to 12 oz. of water to rehydrate you.

We lose over 2 quarts (64 oz) of water every day through the normal vapor exchange through our skin, otherwise known as perspiration.  Those 10-12 cups we lose daily need to be replaced to maintain healthy fluid balance.

It is a little known fact, but insufficient water consumption is actually a risk factor for colon, breast and urinary tract cancers such as cancers of the kidneys, bladder, prostate, and testicles.  Hydration is critical to blood circulation to allow immune system cells to reach damaged tissues in greater numbers.

In 1998 the National Resources Defense Counsel completed a 4 year test of 103 bottles waters and found that 1/3 of them contained bacteria and other chemicals at levels exceeding industry standards.

The largest selling brand of bottled water (Aquifina) is treated tap water packaged by Pepsi.  Not to be outdone, Coke sells it under the label Dasani. 

Did you know that 25% of the bottled water on the market is drawn from municipal taps?

Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.

Four litres (1 gallon) of gasoline can contaminate approximately 2.8 million litres (750,000 gallons) of water.

If all new sources of contamination could be eliminated, in 10 years, 98% of all available groundwater would then be free of pollution.

There are 12,000 different toxic chemical compounds in industrial use today, and more than 500 new chemicals are developed each year.

Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.

Freshwater animals are disappearing five times faster than land animals.

Each day the sun evaporates a trillion tons of water.

The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat

It takes 5,680 litres (1,500 gallons) of water to process one barrel of beer.

At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight

To process one chicken we need 44 litres (11.6 gallons) of water.

To process one can of fruit or vegetables we need 35 litres (9.3 gallons) of water.

It takes 7,000 litres (1,850 gallons) of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.

To manufacture new cars 148,000 litres (39,000 gallons) of water are used per car.

Baths use less water than a typical shower. Soaking in a partially filled tub will use less water than a short shower.