DID YOU KNOW?
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1.4 million people die annually and 74 million will have their lives shortened by diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene. (WHO 2022)
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Today, 1 in 4 people – 2 billion people worldwide – lack safe drinking water. (WHO/UNICEF 2021)
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Almost half of the global population – 3.6 billion people – lack safe sanitation. (WHO/UNICEF 2021)
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Globally, 44 per cent of household wastewater is not safely treated. (UN-Water 2021)
Do you know where your water comes from?
Long Island is entirely dependent on the underlying sole-source aquifer system, which currently supplies over 400 million gallons a day (MGD) of freshwater from more than 1,500 public-supply wells to over 2.8 million people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Nothing is more important than clean water to drink. Protecting our water supply is the foundation of both the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Into Our Aquifers It Goes
Every drop entering Long Island's groundwater aquifers flows to either a drinking water well or to the nearest stream, lake, bay, or harbor. In much of Suffolk County and northern Nassau County increasing nitrate levels in the aquifers and surface waters can be traced to cesspools and septic systems with additional contributions from fertilizers and air pollution.
Preventing Pollution at the Source
Once contaminants enter the groundwater aquifers, they are extremely costly and challenging to clean up. But there are solutions, learn more from the the UN!
What You Can Do
💧Take five-minute showers and save this precious resource.
💧Flush safe. Fix leaking water and waste pipes, empty full septic tanks and report dumping of sludge.
💧Stop polluting. Don’t put food waste, oils, medicines and chemicals down my toilet or drains.
Read About It!
- One Well -The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss
- Saving Long Island: The David-and-Goliath Battle to Preserve the Pine Barrens by Richard Amper
- Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis by Erica Cirino