Humans nowadays are responsible for one of the most severe global issues, water

scarcity. According to the World Health Organization, for every 1$ invested in water
and sanitation, there is an economic benefit of between 3$ and 34$ in return. Fresh
safe water is utterly important to humans survival, political and social stability, yet
it is running dry, severely polluted bringing numerous negative consequences to the
communities. It is our plain duty to put water crisis as one of the priorities of the
worlds issue.

To be simply explained, water crisis is divided into two types, particularly physical
and economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is when people do not have
access to water and economic water scarcity is lack of safe water. In developing
countries, it is hard and time consuming for people just to find a reliable source of
water, or even worse, to notice a supplier of this resource.

Water crisis is due to several major human factors. First of all, people have been
overusing water and do not aware that it is limited. Particularly in developed
countries, people take water for granted and use it wastefully causing a massive
depletion of fresh water. Secondly, poor water management and sewage system of
the industry, agriculture and human wastewater has made pollution one of the
major causes that lead to water shortage. Conflicts and government access are also
some remarkable reasons, for example: people are unable to get near the water
source or it can be controlled by the principle authorities. Last but not least, as the
rapidly increasing population, human demands for basic needs such as water
become more and more excessive.

The issue has brought significantly severe consequences. About 1.2 billion people,
or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity.
According to the Human Development Report 2006, 1.2 billion people, or almost
one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity and another 1.6
billion people, or almost one quarter of the world's population, face economic water
shortage. Lack of access to enough water can remarkably contribute to the worlds
hunger, food scarcity. (figure) Yet people nowadays also have to face and deal with
lack of the substance that account for most of their bodies. As a result, the death
tolls related to water scarcity is rising up day by day. Based on some researches by
the Water Project, nearly 1 out of every 5 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is
due to a water-related disease. Moreover, water shortage also leads to inadequate
sanitation, especially in the countries of Africa. It is a major problem for 2.4 billion
people who are exposed to diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, other
water-borne illnesses. The organization also gives a specific figure of death rate due
to diarrhea. Two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal
diseases alone.

Almost 20 million Yemenis, approximately three out of four, are suffering lack of
access to safe drinking water and standard sanitation. This is resulted from the on-
going political issues in this country, therefore water is strictly controlled by the
government. Moreover, increasing population, poor water management and over-
exploitation of underground water have accounted for a huge proportion in the
contribution to the countrys present situation. Mostly citizens survive by
depending on humanitarian aid from international charity organizations. However,
this is not so often and the amount of water available will never be enough to
supply for the whole population. Families that meet serious financial issues have to
wait for their turn to get water coming from a taps once a month, only if they are
fortunate enough. For wealthier groups, they can buy water from tanks which is not
completely safe for their health.