Drinking Water

Drinking water is such a vital and fundamental part of our lives that we have a tendency to take for granted that our water is safe to drink. In the U.S., federal legislation like the Safe Drinking Water Act which Congress passed in 1974, mandates that the more than 160,000 public water systems in America must be monitored to ensure that the water they provide is safe to drink.

For the most part, these public water systems do a pretty good job providing millions of Americans with drinking water that passes the Environmental Protection Agency�s standards for drinking water contaminants. In other parts of the world, the situation is not so rosy. Here are some facts about drinking water worldwide:

This is just a small sampling of the alarming statistics that were compiled by the World Wildlife Federation.

Summary

As long as populations continue to rise at the current rate, some of the projected figures mentioned above will certainly come to pass. In the U.S., we are not immune to these concerns as our supplies of drinking water are compromised by:

It is up to each of us to make a sober assessment of how we use, and waste, the precious water resources that we take for granted. We are the current stewards of our land, and water and future generations are not likely to regard our wastefulness with respect and affection.