Human
In general, humans can survive for two to eight weeks without food, depending on stored body fat. Survival without water is usually limited to three or four days. About 36 million humans die every year from causes directly or indirectly related to starvation. Childhood malnutrition is also common and contributes to the global burden of disease. However global food distribution is not even, and obesity among some human populations has increased rapidly, leading to health complications and increased mortality in some developed, and a few developing countries. Worldwide over one billion people are obese, while in the United States 35% of people are obese, leading to this being described as an "obesity epidemic." Obesity is caused by consuming more calories than are expended, so excessive weight gain is usually caused by an energy-dense diet.
Health in Liberia
After the thirteen year long civil war, populations in the slums of Liberia skyrocketed. At this point around 60% of the population, or 2.5 million people, do not meet the poverty line. The people were left with little choice of where to obtain water or sanitation. To date Liberia still lives with bad sanitation conditions, with up to 10 people sharing the same toilet without disinfectant and an extreme lack of clean consumable water. For every four people living in Liberia, there is one living without access to any clean drinking water or substantial sanitation. Every five deaths that occur in Liberia is due to people drinking contaminated drinking water. Due to extreme public defecation, the World Health Organisation discovered that 58% of Liberia's water was contaminated with E coli. The E coli present in the water cause many illnesses such as diarrhea and vomiting throughout the population. The water crisis in Liberia has reached catastrophic levels. Action has been taken by many non-profit organizations, one of which is called Waves for Water who are providing water filters for clean drinking water to over 60,000 Liberian people.