A Brief Note On Clean Water And Sanitation

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, “783 million people, or 11 per cent of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. Such sources include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collections.” (United Nations, 2012) The United Nations Water Conference in 1977 along with a few other conferences, addressed helping approximately “1.3 billion people in developing countries gain access to safe drinking water.” (United Nations, 2012) While there is progress being made, we see that various regions without clean drinking water. Reports show, “In four of nine developing regions, 90 per cent or more of the population now uses an improved drinking water source. In contrast, coverage remains very low in Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa, neither of which is on track to meet the MDG drinking water target by 2015. Over 40 per cent of all people without improved drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.” (United Nations, 2012) It is shown that rural areas still lack drinkable water as opposed to urban areas. Consistent improvement has been made to supply populated areas with a reliable source of drinking water. However, research shows, “Coverage with improved drinking water sources for rural populations is still lagging. In 2010, 96 per cent of the urban population used an

An average of 1.8 billion people around the world face the problem of unsanitary drinking water. From adults to children living in developing countries they risk disease and illness by drinking unsafe water. More than 840,000 people die a year related to water disease, and are faced with symptoms such as diarrhea. Diarrhea alone, from poor drinking water and sanitation, kills approximately 2,300 people per day. Related to this statistic one child dies every minute from water-related illnesses. Many people around the world are faced with a water issue such as unsanitary drinking water, and women spend hours each day collecting water just to survive. The people in theses countries have no option since without water humans can’t

Around the world people are suffering from the problem of having a safe and clean water, there are more than 633 million people lack access to safe water. Remote countries in Africa are mostly the victim of having unsanitary water sources.

Having had the chance to travel to some the most primitive areas around the world for missions work, lack of clean water affects the health and hygiene of a people. Improper disposal of human waste and trash are key contributors to water contamination in underdeveloped countries. “In 2016, 143 communities and 57 schools received clean water in Sierra Leone, Kenya and Uganda” (“2016 Annual Report”). Organizations, like The Water Project, are making great efforts around the world to make a difference in these areas by installing wells and providing water purification systems. Until the proper infrastructure is in place, bottled water is the perfect stopgap. Bottled water can provide those living in these unreached areas a way to get their daily intake of water without fear of sickness.

Clean water is essential to our basic needs as human beings and has been acknowledged as a basic human right according to the UN as of July 28, 2010. Still, 1 in 9 (782 million) people don’t have access to clean water, 1 in 3 (2.5 billion) don’t have access to adequate sanitation which results in the spread of often fatal and preventable disease. In a world where 2 in 5 people own a smartphone, it’s easy to forget that for some people even the most basic necessities are hard to come by. Approximately 3.5 million people die every year due to inadequate water supplies. Access to sanitation and safe drinking water could save the lives of 1.5 million children each year.

Two out of every five people living in Sub-Saharan Africa lack safe water. A baby there is 500 times more likely to die from water-related illness than one from the United States. This is a serious ongoing issue that requires the rest of the world to take action. Water spreads diseases easily if the necessary precautions are not taken. Many developing African countries don’t have sewage treatment, or the people don’t have methods to filter and disinfect. Once a person is sick either there is no way to cure them, or medical care is too expensive, so they are left untreated with a high risk of death. Although many believe that the fight for sanitary water in Africa is insurmountable, people in these developing countries can overcome their challenge to access clean water and avoid water-borne diseases through proper sewage treatment facilities, universal water filtration and medical care.

still do not have access to safe water and 32 million don’t have access to adequate sanitation in

Water and sanitation: Around 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhea diseases caused by lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. At any one time about one-half of all people in developing countries are suffering from diseases associated with water. Diseases may be caused by drinking water contaminated by human or animal waste, insects which breed in water or parasites. The energy expended carting water long distances also has a health and time cost on women and children. Improved access to water and a knowledge of hygiene and management practices can lead to improved

Access to clean drinking water, piped directly into one’s household is not an option for millions households living in middle- and low-income countries. According to a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report, only 58 percent of the world’s population receives their drinking water from a piped connection which goes directly into their homes (WHO/UNICEF 2015). Households that leave their home to collect water rely on water sources that provide varying quality of drinking water. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) defines improved drinking water sources as those constructed to provide protection from outside contaminants, specifically fecal matter (WHO 2012). However, having access to an improved drinking water source does not

Over 2.3 billion more people have gained access to an improved source of drinking water since 1990, but 748 million people still draw their water from an unimproved source

Sub-Saharan Africa has the challenges with water sanitation. Only 68% of people living within the region have access to an improved water

Around the world there are countries like Libya with limited fresh water sources that’s within several hundred kilometers between each other. This alone would be bad enough but, getting the water would be harder for disabled people which makes up fifteen percent of the population (and higher in developing countries). Therefore, there needs to be an efficient system to help countries have opportunities to have clean, safe, water accessible for people of all kinds whether they be disabled, national minorities, poor, or elderly.

Across the globe there are approximately six hundred and sixty three million people who lack access to clean, safe drinking water. Water is essential to life and a basic human right that everyone, regardless of status or location, should have. Water scarcity has begun to increase with the growth of population and agricultural industry. This scarcity is affecting humans across the globe, even in wealthy industrialized countries. The overuse of water in homes, on farms, and in the workplace has put a burden on the natural environmental systems that keep civilizations going, forcing people to take action. Water scarcity continues to be a modern tragedy worldwide; however, global efforts provide hope for many through their continued outreach programs to bring water to people in need and fix the broken system that has been adopted.

According to Unicef, “Two out of every ten children do not make it to their fifth birthday due to a water related illness.” This crisis is preventable and 39% of Western and Central African people should not be living like this. Life is difficult for the people that do not have clean water. ¨Women and children walk up to three hours a day to get water,¨(Unicef). “Women spend more time collecting water than anything else,” stated by Water Changes Everything. “Women and children also carry up to 40 pounds of water every trip they make to get water,” states Water and Sanitation. The information is important because they do not have a good chance to get a job or education and therefore they live in poverty with no chance of having a productive life outside of their village. There are many global problems about this crisis. “The woman and children collecting the water do not get an education because they spend all day getting the water” (Water Changes Everything). “They still do not have proper sanitation water to drink or clean water,” states the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “On an average year 1.5 million children die a year due to a water related disease,” states Water and Sanitation. This problem is solvable, and we can not allow 1.5 million children to die a year and not get an education. Research must continue in order to solve this

In third-world countries, water and sanitation facilities are often scarce or unreliable. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as chorea, dirrhoea, hepatitis, typhoid and polio. Each day 2000 children die from diarrhoea caused by contaminated water an inadequate sanitation and hygiene and overall around 842000 people are estimated to die each year. These diseases have the insidious effect of reducing people’s ability to access education and earn income – 272 million school days are lost each year to water-related diseases.