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Learn About Our Urban Water

Join the UCR Water Science and Policy Center and UCR Libraries and Water Resources Collections and Archives in celebrating International Water Day, March 29, 2011, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Orbach Science Library. Learn how this precious resource is managed locally.

Visit with local and regional water agencies such as the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, Western Municipal Water District, and the Eastern Municipal Water District. Learn about river basin management, urban and agricultural supply and treatment, and water recycling. There will also be a booth from our own Water Resources Collections and Archives.

Speakers from the water agencies and the Water Resources Collections and Archives will describe their work and programs.

Water Facts:

• 1.1 billion people (17% of the global population) lacked access to improved water sources.
• Over half of the world’s population has access to improved water through household connections or yard taps.
• Of the 1.1 billion without improved water sources, nearly two thirds live in Asia.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, 42% of the population is still without improved water supply.
• In order to meet the water supply MDG target, an additional 260 000 people per day up to 2015 should gain access to improved water sources.
• Between 2002 and 2015, the world’s population is expected to increase every year by 74.8 million people.
• 88% of diarrhoeal disease is attributed to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and hygiene.
• Improved water supply reduces diarrhoea morbidity between 6% and 25%, if severe outcomes are included.
• Improved sanitation reduces diarrhoea morbidity by 32%.
• Hygiene interventions including hygiene education and promotion of hand washing can lead to a reduction of diarrhoeal cases by up to 45%.
• Improvements in drinking-water quality through household water treatment, such as chlorination at point-of-use, can lead to a reduction of diarrhoea episodes between 35% and 39%.
• Improper planning of dam and irrigation projects has led to rapid intensification of transmission of malaria and schistosomiasis; for example, in development areas of the Senegal River Basin schistosomiasis prevalence shot up from 0 to 90% in a period of less than 2 years.