Quotable Quotes

WATER:

“If gold has been prized because it is the most inert element, changeless and incorruptible, water is prized for the opposite reason — its fluidity, mobility, changeability that make it a necessity and a metaphor for life itself. To value gold over water is to value economy over ecology, that which can be locked up over that which connects all things.”
― Rebecca Solnit

“Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person’s property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear.”
― Michael Simpson

“Water is the driving force in nature.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

“Water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.” United Nations
“Globalization was supposed to break down barriers between continents and bring all peoples together. But what kind of globalization do we have with over one billion people on the planet not having safe water to drink?” Mikhail Gorbachev
“When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.” Benjamin Franklin
“Water and sanitation problems have reached boiling point: children are dying unnecessarily at the rate of 20 jumbo jets crashing every single day.” Ravi Narayanan

• “Our work has shown that sanitation does improve health – simple achievable interventions reduce for example diarrheal disease by 391 million cases per year.” WHO. 2007
• “Basic knowledge and understanding about the connection between hygiene and disease can save lives. The simple act of washing hands with soap (or ash, or earth) and water after going to the toilet is estimated to reduce diarrheal disease by a third.” – WHO/UNICEF 2000 Human Waste Report. 2002
• “To reach the sanitation target means providing services to an additional 450,000 people a day until 2015. This calls for almost a doubling of the current efforts. On current trends, the world will miss the sanitation target by more than half a billion people.” WaterAid
• “Poor sanitation and water supplies are the engines that drive cycles of disease, poverty and powerlessness in developing nations. Action to improve sanitation is an important step to enable the poorest people to escape poverty.” – WaterAid and Tearfund. Human Waste Report 2002
• “It is clear that investing in sanitation generates massive returns on health, the environment and the economy. In fact, the overwhelming evidence is that there is no single development policy intervention that brings greater public health returns than investment in basic sanitation and hygiene practices. The UN estimates that for every $1 spent on sanitation, the return on investment is around $9.” -WaterAid. End Water Poverty event welcomes the UN International Year of Sanitation. 2008

More than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. More than two billion people do not have the dignity of proper sanitation. Over two million people – mostly children – die each year from dirty water and poor sanitation conditions.

More than 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. In developing countries, about 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions. At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.

This is a quote by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on World Water Day, 2001: “‘Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right. Contaminated water jeopardizes both the physical and social health of all people. It is an affront to human dignity.'” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
HYGIENE:

Hygiene is two thirds of health.
Lebanese Proverb