Facts of Water Must Be known

In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly designated March 22 as the first World Water Day. And with good reason – without water, we’d be nothing. Just dust. Water is one of the most common substances on earth, and one of the most vital; it’s a tremendously valuable resource, yet one we squander and pollute prodigiously.

Water is deceptive. For while it pours freely from the heavens and seems to flow endlessly in rivers, it’s a finite resource; we only have what we have. And although there is about 332,500,000 cubic miles of it on earth – only one-hundredth of one percent of the world's water is readily available for human use. We really need to learn how to show it some respect. Which is where World Water Day comes in.

Even though water deserves celebration every day, we’ll take this occasion to give a shout-out to this incredible compound that gives us life and sustains the planet around us. So with that in mind, consider the following facts – some wondrous, some disconcerting, all eye-opening

FACTS OF WATER

1. At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight
2. The average human body is made of 50 to 65 percent water.
3. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
4. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds.
5. An inch of water covering one acre (27,154 gallons) weighs 113 tons.
6. Water covers 70.9 percent of the planet’s surface.
7. Ninety-seven percent of the water on Earth is salt water; the water found in the Earth’s lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, etc accounts for only 0.3 percent of the world’s fresh water. The rest is trapped in glaciers or is in the ground.
8. There is more water in the atmosphere than in all of our rivers combined.
9. If all of the water vapor in our planet’s atmosphere fell as water at once and spread out evenly, it would only cover the globe with about an inch of water.
10. Soft drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling to necessary locations in the body.
11. Drinking too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an imbalance of water in the brain.
12. More than one-quarter of all bottled water comes from a municipal water supply – the same place that tap water comes from.
13. Since the average faucet releases 2 gallons of water per minute, you can save up to four gallons of water every morning by turning off the tap while you brush your teeth.
14.  A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water each day.
15.  At one drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons in a year.
16.  A bath uses up to 70 gallons of water; a five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons.
17. The first water pipes in the U.S. were made from hollowed logs.
18. Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic
19. Leaks in the New York City water supply system account for 36 million gallons of wasted water per day.
20. There are around one million miles of water pipeline and aqueducts in the U.S. and Canada, enough to circle the globe 40 times. 
21. 748 million people in the world do not have access to an improved source of drinking water
22. And 2.5 billion people do not have use of an improved sanitation facility.
23. Some 1.8 billion people worldwide drink water that is contaminated with feces. 
24. A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
25. The World Health Organization recommends 2 gallons per person daily to meet the requirements of most people under most conditions and around 5 gallons per person daily to cover basic hygiene and food hygiene needs.
26. By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
27. On average, an American resident uses about 100 gallons of water per day.
28. On average, a European resident uses about 50 gallons of water per day.
29. On average, a resident of sub-Saharan Africa uses 2 to 5 gallons of water per day.
30. It takes .26 gallons of water to irrigate one calorie of food. 
31. Yet it takes 26 gallons for one calorie of food when water is used inefficiently.
32. It takes 2.6 gallons of water to make a sheet of paper.
33. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to make 17 ounces of plastic.
34. It takes 924 gallons of water to produce 2.2 pounds of rice.
35. It takes 2,641 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans.
36. It takes 3,962 gallons of water to produce 2.2 pounds of beef.
37. It takes 39,090 gallons more water to manufacture a new car. 
38. Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s surface. 
39. In developing nations women and girls are primarily responsible for collecting water; on average, 25 percent of their day is spent on this task.
40. Collectively, South African women and children walk a daily distance equivalent to 16 trips to the moon and back to fetch water. 
41. Water intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic performance.
42. While the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this water must be consumed in the liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body.
43. Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it. 
44. The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today. 
45. The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water. 
46. The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.