A tap drips in England, despite most of England and Wales receiving only a third of their average rainfalll, which has kept reservoirs in Sussex and Kent especially low.
Welcoming some 11,000 participants from 120 nations to the 4th World Water Forum, the Mexican President Vincente Fox said that urgent actions are needed to guarantee the present and future supply of water for all humanity.
Water usage has increased six fold during the 20th century, twice the rate of population growth.
According to WHO/UNICEF 1.1 billion people do not have access to adequate supply of drinking water and 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. In addition, seven million people die every year due to water borne diseases.
These are apalling statistics not acceptable when we know that the world has sufficient drinking water.
More needs to be done at national and interantional levels to overcome this problem which is affecting the poorest of the poor.
According to a water progress report at this forum, it seems that in some parts of the world 30 to 40 percent or more of water goes unaccounted for, through water leakages in pipes and canals and illegal connections.
The picture above does speak loud.
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