Introduction

For this project our group was given the task to live on 4 liters of water per day for two days. This simulation gives us an insight to how developing countries live their daily lives. Many Americans are wasteful and take for granted the availability of water. Some facts regarding American consumption of water include:

• The average individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world's population lives on 25 gallons.
• The average American family uses 150 gallons of water per day compared to five gallons per day that an Afraican family uses.
• The availability of water is in the convenience of every American home

Some facts regarding consumption of water in developing countries include:

• Over 40 billion work hours are lost each year in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water. (WHO, 2004)
• The Average distance that women in developing countries walk to collect water per day is four miles and the average weight taht women carry on their heads is approzimately 44 pounds(WSSCC,2004)
• An estimated 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation and 1.1 billion people are without access to safe water. (WHO-UNICEF, 2004)
• There are 1.6 million deaths per year attributed to dirty water and poor sanitation (World Watch; World Health Organization)