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More than 70% of our planet's surface is covered by water, which makes you wonder why we called it planet earth in the first place. Roughly 70% of our bodies are composed of water. Coincidence? I'm not sure.

For over 1 billion people across the developing world, accessing water is not as simple as most think. Of all the water on the planet, only 1 percent is sustainable for human use. In fact, one out of every eight people on the planet -- that's nearly 1.1 billion human beings -- do not have enough clean water to drink. Still, we continue to take water for granted in our daily lives.

On an average day, women living in communities that lack access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation spend approximately 200 million hours scavenging for water. Even when water is procured, there is often no available means of determining its purity. The practical consequence of the productivity gap is an ongoing cycle of poverty, malnutrition and powerlessness.

Combine these sobering facts with the design thinking of Dieter Rams, who said "Good design is as little design as possible..." and it's easy to see why we ended up asking ourselves, how do we do more, with less... less water that is!

You need to know that the average pair of jeans requires 45 liters of water to be produced. For just one pair of jeans! We knew this was something we could do differently, we just needed a new approach. That new approach was Water < Less. Water < less is a complete re-imagination of our denim finishing process that helps us save water for those who need it most.

As an extension to our Water < less product and to raise further awareness to the global water crisis, we recently launched "Go Water < Less", in partnership with Water.org. By partnering with Water.org we are able to empower communities across the developing world through a unique "water credit" program -- a micro-lending platform that provides loans for individuals that allow them to connect water to their homes.

Water credit means women can work a paying job or send their children to school, instead of spending several hours daily scavenging for water. It also means self-determination for families who have never been given a chance. Core to this model is the idea that solutions are not simply imported, but arise from close collaboration with communities.

As Water.org CEO and co-founder Gary White says, "It doesn't make any sense that we should have come so far as a planet yet people are still dying by the millions every year because they don't have safe water."

Help us make an impact on our planet! #GoWater < less!


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artleads
Let's have a national retreat.
11:16 AM on 04/10/2012
When you see things like this, you have to be optimistic about what America can do to turn the environment around. To make the world a better place.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ignacio sanabria
Mirror synapses at work
06:32 AM on 04/10/2012
Today, oil is more important than water. Soon, it will be the opposite.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ADVOCATE4ZPG
02:22 AM on 04/10/2012
The portion of U.S. surface and subsurface water diverted to lawn care and growth along with conventional WCs are a total waste of potable water.....
02:20 AM on 04/10/2012
Everyone things that the problem is simple & common and they don't bother about it.But if we keep on neglecting this problem it may cause great problem for upcoming generation.There is a proverb in English "Earth is a treasure which we must past to our upcoming generation."So if we neglect a small water problem then it will hamper out upcoming generation.We can't provide useful thing to our generation.So must concentrate in this problem.
11:48 PM on 04/09/2012
Perhaps we should invest in crops that don't require much water, instead of say... I don't know... GMO corn?
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hornedcog
Tax Tea Now!
08:41 AM on 04/10/2012
Or..... I don't know... hemp?
12:48 PM on 04/10/2012
Hemp for food purposes is disgusting. I was referring to perhaps Quinoa.
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R2D2-51
Flower Power Forever
06:20 PM on 04/09/2012
Most folks don't bother with this stuff, especially when your young & bulletproof until you start to age a bit like some of us who now have signs & symptoms cropping up as a result of that long term exposure over time.

I lost both my sisters to breast cancer, a step son to testicular cancer and belive firmly most of the vast majority of cancers we see today are a direct result of criminal negligence of the fossil fuel industry where nearly everything we produce uses chemicals & products that come from petroleum by products all of which are in the realm of cancer causing substances.

Fortunately for the last 20 years I left suburbia for a more natural rural life & get my water directly out of a spring at 9,000 feet up in the mountains. Good stuff, but unrealistic for millions of other Americans unless they demand in solidarity a change in BAU(Business As Usual).
11:49 PM on 04/09/2012
You're forgetting what's in your food.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
R2D2-51
Flower Power Forever
06:13 PM on 04/09/2012
And that doesn't even include tests that you can do on bottled-water that comes in (PETE) stamped plastic containers which means the plastic was made with highly cancerous causing xylene & other toxic substances which if you have the water analyzed can find residue in the water itself.

And of course there is the accumulative dose response exposure from metropolitan waste water treatment systems across America, that when you examine the tests they have to run for toxicology would floor most people as to the levels of badzine stuff from heavy metals to the long term effects of chlorine, fluorine and other chemicals they use to sanitize the water-like San Francisco.

When I examined their toxicology report online the first thing I thought was looking at the statistics of people who have lived there for decades drinking the water & the rate of prostrate, breast, and all the other cancers we now get across the threshold of time from being exposed to the vast fossil-fuel industry which has permeated into everything we eat & drink including all by-product exposure, including fish & animals we eat.
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11:51 AM on 04/09/2012
I think the problem is simple. Nations should be training the next generation of children to be water quality experts. A sort of soup to nuts water curriculum where the students become the villages go to experts on anything water related. As children age they can learn about water borne parasites and identify them in water samples. Nations would have an aspiring army of water experts that could parlay their knowledge into a medical career. When you have a problem and you release an army of qualified students to solve it, things get done. The power of children is a nation's greatest asset and resource.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
R2D2-51
Flower Power Forever
06:28 PM on 04/09/2012
BTW-Because I do so much backpacking into wilderness areas for 8 months out of the year, you can get a most outfitter retailers like Capella's, REI,Sportsman Warehouse or Bass Pro Shops a "pen sized laser" that runs on battery which you can carry in your front pocket of fanniepack to sterilize water on the fly.

You apply the tip into a gallon of water or container and in just a few shakes it kills 99.9% of all water born bacteria protozoa & Ghardia type of cellular activity that can contaminate your drinking water.

You can also get clip on your belt test kits for testing your water supply for all sorts of heavy metals and toxic substances. When I worked HAZMAT we used to use them in the field a lot for ID what we were up against.
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humanbeing-rick
Born in the USA 1947
11:24 AM on 04/09/2012
It is a disgrace to all of mankind to not share our resources for everyone to have decent water.
It is a simple matter to extract water from the air or from the earth, and it can be done cheaply, and provided to the masses at an economical scale. However, greed and politics gets in the way - which comes down to sin.
The people of Earth have got to evolve, and learn to become enlightened citizens of this universe.
10:50 AM on 04/09/2012
although hydrofracking natural gas is not a sustainable process it will be done. The question is will we sustainably develop this process? The absorbent amount of fresh water used for hydro fracking is unsustainable and without regulations to drive for sustainable production the US will probably continue creating usustainable industries..unfortunatley for all
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ADVOCATE4ZPG
02:17 AM on 04/10/2012
What's an "absorbent amount"?
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Reality always bites
Sometimes just a bit peckish
09:53 AM on 04/09/2012
For the whole of my years of understanding (I'm 60) there have been charities appealing for money to help build wells, reservoirs, provide sterilisation, filtration and provide water to third world countries and end this tragic problem.
So in over fifty years billions and billions of £s /$s have been given by the public as an act of compassion and by governments in aid.
Throughout the years charities have got bigger and bigger with offices and TV campaigns and directors and executives have been appointed on higher and higher salaries.
Guess what
The water problem gets worse and more and more people are dying every year.
What are they spending the money on?
11:50 PM on 04/09/2012
Politics and staffing.
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hornedcog
Tax Tea Now!
08:44 AM on 04/10/2012
Blue jeans.