World Water Day: 3.4 Million People Die Each Year from Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene-Related Causes

World Water Day gave everyone the chance to make a difference, with 'awash' of mixed contributions supporting those in need, and according to reports, approximately 8,000 children die every day from the lack of clean water.

Millions are constantly in crisis due to lack of clean water, according to Water.Org . Lets look at the facts:

-More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.

-Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.

-Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.

-780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.

-What can you do to make now to change the lives of those without clean water?

-"[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns." 

-An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.

-Over 2.5X more people lack water than live in the United States.

-More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.

Contributions to helping out can be as small as turning off the water faucet when brushing your teeth, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This alone is enough to save up to eight gallons of water between brushing in the morning and at night. The same can be applied to dirty dishes and standing in the shower for shaving and washing with soap.

How will you make a difference?