Over 70 per cent of the earth is covered with water – yet water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), only three per cent of this enormous volume is potable fresh water, and only one third of that is available for use by human beings. Today, around four billion people have inadequate or no access to supplies of clean water; over one billion have no access to clean drinking water. World Health Organization statistics show that every year around 700 million people contract diseases caused by contaminated water, and around 3 million of these, over half of them children, die as a result. However, contaminated water is not the only major problem; untreated waste water is also a serious threat. A mere 10% of global waste water is treated; exploding population figures and poor water resource management only serve to exacerbate the situation.
According to WHO statistics, each person in Germany uses an average of 127 liters of drinking water per day. In general, industrial countries use ten times more water than developing countries. Forecasts of the future warn that water availability will even be restricted in industrial nations. In fact, dam construction projects or plans to privatize drinking water in some countries such as Mexico or Brazil have already proved to be sources of geopolitical tension and, as in Africa, have triggered extensive uprisings.
At the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, a resolution was passed to halve the number of people without access to clean water by 2015. Close attention will therefore be paid to global efforts to provide adequate quantities of clean or treated water. Recent years have seen an increase in public awareness of this complex theme. The solution lies in "resource management", a concept which spans both the quality and quantity of clean drinking water and industrial water.
Aquaworx AG has adopted this goal and formulated the vision statement:
» Sufficient clean water, accessible and affordable for everyone «
