Liz Grant, REI’s Communications Assistant, discusses the gift of water.

A World Water Crisis

The United Nations Development Report from 2006 sets out this disturbing truth: “Throughout human history, [economic, social and political] progress has depended on access to clean water and on the ability of societies to harness the potential of water as a productive resource. Water for life in the household and water for livelihoods through production are two of the foundations for human development. Yet for a large section of humanity these foundations are not in place.”

The report goes on to explain that not only is access to water “a basic human need and a fundamental human right,” but also that “more than 1 billion people are denied the right to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.”

In fact, the report states that “unclean water is the world’s second biggest killer of children.”