Day to day activities and survival of every family, regardless of size, composition, nationality, or social and economic status, depends on water. All families everywhere need water for preparing food, bathing, cleaning our homes and clothes, and for activities such as growing vegetables or fishing. Recreation is an important part of children’s development, and clean waterways provide a place for many people to have fun swimming, hiking, or traveling by boat.  Although the need for water is universal, the amount of water that we use – how we receive, store, and dispose of it – is not equal between countries or in different areas of the same country.