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.
Safe household water storage
All types of 'safe household water storage must be used with water from known clean sources or with water having received prior efficacious treatment.The United Nations' "Millennium Declaration" adopted by its General Assembly in September 2000 set Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that have a purpose of significantly reducing the proportion of people in the world in extreme poverty. Resolution 19 specifically states with respect to drinking water, "To halve, by the year 2015...the proportion of the world's people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water". In 2009 the United Nations published "The Millennium Development Goals Report" that states: "The world is well on its way to meeting the drinking water target, though some countries still face enormous challenges."
One way that the World Health Organization (WHO) has supported the safe drinking water goal is with its Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) program which targets people that are not connected to community water systems. Their website states that improved HWTS techniques can dramatically improve drinking water quality and reduce diarrhoeal diseases for those that must rely on unsafe water supplies. It reminds us that there are 1.6 million diarrhoeal deaths per year related to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene and that these are mostly of children under 5 years old.