Of all the water available on the planet, 97.5% is salty and only 2.5% is fresh. Of the latter, 99.7% is found in polar ice caps and deep groundwater that is difficult to access, while only 0.3% is found in rivers and shallow groundwater. Of this small amount of fresh water available for consumption in the world, 14% is found in Brazil. However, 73% of this amount is available in the Amazon region, inhabited by less than 5% of the population. The southeast, which is home to 43% of the population, has only 6% of this total.
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly officially recognized access to safe drinking water and sanitation as essential human rights for the full enjoyment of life. The decision highlights the importance of equitable access as a component of the realization of other rights.
Today, the world is experiencing an alarming sanitation situation: 2.5 billion people do not have basic sanitation and 780 million people lack access to drinking water (UN, 2014). In Brazil the figure is 35 million without access to drinking water and more than 100 million without access to sewage collection.
Diseases caused by drinking contaminated water, such as diarrhea, cholera, meningitis, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, and dysentery kill five million people a year – 10x more than wars. It is estimated that 60% of infant mortality has this same origin.
Added to this extremely worrying scenario of neglect and lack of water governance, we live in a crucial moment in history, when countries are discussing agreements on how to deal with climate change, which has caused major changes in rainfall and water availability in various parts of the world, with serious consequences, especially for the poorest populations.
In 2015, one in three municipalities declared a state of emergency due to drought, mostly in the Northeast region of Brazil. Greater São Paulo has come very close to a collapse in the water supply for its 20 million inhabitants.
Thus, we live a picture of water stress, population with lack of access to quality water, no comprehensive sanitation, diseases related to these deficiencies silently killing people, climate change, water crisis in several regions of the world and according to UN forecasts, the global demand for water may exceed the annual available resources by 44% by 2050.
How can you look at this scenario and not take any action? Water is Life, and each drop is a reflection of the attitudes of each one of us.
Through our services and products, we contribute to finding solutions for some of the main challenges of our times: the scarcity of our natural resources and the preservation of the planet. EP seeks to improve people’s quality of life by reducing environmental impact through its 360° solution, i.e. by providing equipment, technologies and services for water and effluent treatment, environmental analysis and chemical solutions.
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