What you can do - Water

Find out how your actions impact the global environment and discover a number of simple ways in which you can make a real difference.

Facts about water

In the UK, every person uses 155 litres of water a day – 52 litres alone are used to flush the toilet
HSBC uses enough water every year to fill 1,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools. This is equivalent to covering both Luxembourg and Hong Kong with water waist deep.
A city with one million people consumes 625 million litres (165 million US gallons) of water every day, enough to fill 250 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
If present trends in water consumption continue, two-thirds of the world's population could experience water shortages by 2025.
Between two and three billion people, more than a third of the global population, have no daily access to clean water.
The United States uses approximately 1,300 billion litres (350 billion US gallons) of fresh water every day. This amount of water would fill up the Pyramid of Giza 513 times.
The total water consumption in Latin America will have increased by 30% from 1995 by 2025 if current processes continue.
One half of all the rainwater that falls in the Amazon comes from vapour produced by the trees.
The 2006 Living Planet Report shows biodiversity in freshwater systems has declined by 30% since 1970.
Over 80% of all marine pollution comes from land-based activities.
More than one in four of all fish caught are thrown back dead. 27 million tonnes every year.