Polluted water is more frightening than war

The number of people who die from dirty water every year is greater than all forms of violent conflict, including war.

Fish died of pollution in a lake in Shandong Province, China.Photo: China Daily.

AP said, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has just released a report on World Water Day (March 22). The report - titled 'Sick Water - claims every day the world generates about two billion tons of wastewater. That amount of waste helps the disease spread and destroy ecosystems.

The report said diseases related to dirty water caused 3.7% of all deaths in the world, equivalent to millions of lives. More than half of patients in hospitals suffer from diseases related to dirty water.

'If we are unable to manage waste, more people will die from diseases caused by water pollution,' said Achim Steiner, UNEP director.

According to the UNEP report, people need up to three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water and the amount of bottled water in the United States consumes about 17 million barrels of oil a year.

Efforts to improve wastewater management in Europe have created many positive environmental changes in the continent, UNEP said. However, the "dead waters" on the oceans continue to expand throughout the world. 'Dead waters' are places where oxygen is virtually non-existent due to pollution.