Did you know?

Feces is a renewable resource that can be
turned into biogas -- the original natural gas ??

Sanitation Facts

• 2.5 billion people worldwide, including almost 1 billion children, do not have access to basic sanitation. ¹
• 1.6 million deaths per year can be attributed to unsafe water, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene.¹
• Every dollar spent on improving sanitation generates an average economic benefit of $7. ¹
• Comprising less than 1% of the global population, Canada possesses 20% of the world’s total freshwater resources and 7% of its renewable supply of fresh water. ²
• Up to 1/3rd of the water used by the average Canadian family is flushed down the toilet. ³
• About 65% of indoor home water use in Canada occurs in the bathroom – toilets are the single greatest water user. ³
• In 2004, Canadians used an average of 329 litres of water each day. ³
• Despite comparable levels of wealth and standards of living, Canadians use more than four times the amount of water used by the average European. ⁴
• Municipal wastewater represents the largest source of effluent discharge to Canadian waters, totaling nearly 4.3 billion litres in 1991. ³

References:
¹ World Health Organization (WHO)
² “Flushing the Future: Examining Urban Water Use in Canada,” the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, 2003.
³ Environment Canada
⁴ Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD 1999)