Update: From the Associated Press via The Durango Herald:

The report, launched Monday to coincide with World Water Day, said an estimated 2 billion tons of waste water — including fertilizer run-off, sewage and industrial waste — is being discharged daily. That waste fuels the spread of disease and damages ecosystems. [Clearing the Waters] (pdf) — the report from the U.N. Environment Program — said that 3.7 percent of all deaths are attributed to water-related diseases, translating into millions of deaths. More than half of the world’s hospital beds are filled by people suffering from water-related illnesses, it said. “If we are not able to manage our waste, then that means more people dying from waterborne diseases,” said Achim Steiner, the U.N. Undersecretary General and executive director of UNEP.

From the UN News Centre:

More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for better protection and sustainable management of one of the Earth’s most precious resources on the occasion of World Water Day. “These deaths are an affront to our common humanity, and undermine the efforts of many countries to achieve their development potential,” Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, which this year focuses on “Clean Water for a Healthy World” as its theme. “Our growing population’s need for water for food, raw materials and energy is increasingly competing with nature’s own demands for water to sustain already imperilled ecosystems and the services on which we depend,” he noted. “Day after day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural waste into the world’s water systems. Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer with the onset of climate change,” added the Secretary-General.

In his message, Mr. Ban highlighted that water is vitally linked to all UN development goals, including maternal and child health and life expectancy, women’s empowerment, food security, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Today is World Water Day. The United Nations has declared March 22 each year for this celebration and education experience. Here’s a look at some of the events via their mapping tool.

Take some time out today to look at your water footprint and the pollution you may be adding to our waters. Wastewater treatment plants don’t remove everything from effluent, only those that are mandated in their permits. Pollutants spilled onto roadways or into storm drains get to the surface water eventually, without treatment, adding to problems for downstream users.