Water Pollution Essay

Unsafe water supplies are often contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals, and radiological hazards. In 2000, the World Health Organization and UNICEF identified some 2.4 billion people who did not have basic sanitation facilities, and 1.1 billion people without a safe drinking water supply. (Wagner, 2009) Some communities experienced diarrhea, caused by a variety of parasites, viruses, and bacteria that infect people as a result of contaminated drinking water or poor hygiene. In India, more than 500,000 children die from diarrhea every year. Like other tropical diseases, when diarrhea does not kill, it weakens, leaving people more susceptible to other infections, such as tuberculosis and HIV. (Whitman, 2008).

Are you ever thirsty for a nice cold glass of clean water? Most privileged people can find decent drinkable water in at least three places in the average kitchen. It’s a gift we commonly undermine. Unfortunately, many adults and young children aren’t granted this privilege. Striving each day to find clean water and still worry if it is safe enough to drink. All around the world some of the deadliest bacteria, diseases, and germs are alive in the water. Underprivileged countries do not have clean running water or even a decent well to draw from; this results in drinking from stagnate rivers, salty oceans, and contaminated puddles. Each year, thousands of people die from the bacteria living in unclean water. Sorrowfully, many of those numbers are young children! When a child becomes sick from bacteria found in their drinking water, an entire daily system becomes thrown out of balance. They cannot attend school or work, and it affects friends and family around them! Moreover, economical issues arise. Humans around the world have their whole lives ahead of them. Everyone should have daily access to clean drinking water to keep them healthy and growing. In this fallen world that’s not always the reality. The cycle that contaminated water brings is almost unstoppable.

“Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right. Contaminated water jeopardizes both the physical and social health of all people. It is an affront to human dignity.” — Kofi Annan, prior United Nations Secretary-General

Main Point: Third world countries lack accessibility to clean water exposing them to disease and harmful toxins that result in 2.4 million deaths annually (Bartram, 2010).

This research paper will focus on the social determinant of health involving access to clean water. We have focused our research on the accessibility of safe water intake on First Nations Reserves in Canada, we all know of the issues with limited access to safe water in other countries but we often forget about our own issues at home here. Over a billion people in the world lack safe drinking water, something that many of us in the Canada take for granted on a daily basis. As pointed out by Peter Gleick, “nearly three billion people live without access to adequate sanitation systems necessary for reducing exposure to water-related diseases”5. Throughout this paper we will explore different solution options in order to prevent the spread of dangerous diseases through unsanitary water conditions. Our research is going to express the importance of focusing on the issue we have at hand here in Canada and increasing awareness for the issues here before worrying about other countries over seas. Outbreaks of water-borne infections include but are not limited to; E’coli, Salmonella, Schistosoma, Cholera vibrios and Hepatitis A. Thousands of people die every day worldwide from water-related diseases; these deaths include mostly children and elderly, with some of these incidents taking place in Canada.

Water-borne diseases are caused by the ingestion of water contaminated by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites. These pathogens are spread through the feces or urine of an infected individual (africaneeds). The most common diseases are cholera, guinea worm and typhoid. People can easily contract these diseases if there is no system of sewage collection and treatment. In fact, almost 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to adequate sanitation (UN water). Climate change can also impact the water crisis in Africa. Water is necessary for survival, and when areas get

A major challenge and cause of serious medical issues in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of access to a clean water supply. There are 345 million people that lack access to water in Africa. Unfortunately, when water is available it is high in contamination. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they cannot be maintained properly to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as necessary and the people are unaware that the water may not be safe to drink. Oftentimes, when a source of water has been provided, the quantity of water is often given more attention over the quality of. Lack of clean drinking is the leading cause of diarrheal diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and causes 7.7% of deaths in Africa. Diarrhea is caused by numerous bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms most of which can be spread by contaminated water. The importance of diarrheal diseases has mostly been overlooked. Through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been some accomplishments during the

USnews.com finds that India is an area where a large majority of the population do not have access to clean water. Indians have to spend 62 more cents than the British for their water, which is estimated to be 20 percent of their average income. These are the circumstances that they have to live with in, where the only alternative is to use contaminated water. Those who choose to do so often face a risk of dying from an illness, more often from diarrhea. Exposure to dirty water accounts for the death of 140,000 kids in India.

Unclean water is a growing phenomenon that is immensely occurring in Latin America. Water is an important necessity in life. There are over 70 million people who have no access to clean water. Many families in Latin America cannot afford to send their children to school, so the children drop out of school to help work at the home. Many of the children who stay home to work walk for hours to get to the nearest water source, and most of the time, the water is unclean and not safe to drink. The unclean water is the only water accessible to families in Latin America. With the unclean water available, sanitation was not. It is very rare to find any form of sanitized water in most households in Latin America. Over 100 million people are not

Although my family is fortunate to always have running water in their homes, a large population of Kenya’s women and children devote their days to fetching clean water from scarce fresh water sources to bring back to their homes. Along with water shortage, water pathogens are an ongoing issue in Kenya, as the people have been left unprotected against recurrent epidemics such as parasitic worms and cholera through the country’s running water.

Introduction I. Attention getter: When was the last time you drank a glass of water and almost died due to cholera or dysentery? A. If you live in a developed country with an effective water treatment plant nearby, the answer is never. B. Clean running water is readily available where you live. II.

Water contamination is one of the reasons are health and many other people’s health is not good. Half of the world’s hospital beds are being used for people that are suffering from a water related disease. Globally, about 1.8 billion people use a drinking water source that is contaminated with feces. Contaminated water can transmit many different diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Eighty-eight percent of diarrhea are estimated to be attributable from unsafe drinking water.

The lack of knowledge on proper hygiene, water sanitation, and water disposal are factors that hinder access to potable water and sanitary facilities thus affecting the members of a poor rural community in San Gabriel, Honduras. The source of drinking, cooking, and bathing water for most households in San Gabriel comes from wells, which is contaminated with microorganisms, parasites, and bacteria. 60% of households use their home’s wells, 20% use their neighbor’s wells, 15% have piped water in their homes, and 5% use their neighbor’s piped water. 1 As a result of poor hygiene, the contaminated wells has led to water-related illnesses such as diarrheal disease and parasitism that affect the members of the San Gabriel community but mostly the

The Center for Disease Control states that "35% of the world’s population" lacks access to sanitized water (CDC). This is cause for alarm. Poor sanitization leads to the spread of disease. According to United Nations Children's Fund,"90 percent of child deaths from diarrheal diseases are directly linked to contaminated water, lack of sanitation, or inadequate hygiene." Cholera, typhoid and salmonella, to name a few, are all preventable illnesses spread by polluted water. Trachoma, which is the "world’s leading cause of preventable blindness" (CDC), is a result of poor hygiene and sanitation. Sustainable tap water brings the much needed access to uninfected water to the millions of people affected by these water borne and hygiene related

Causing problems in the small intestine in animals and humans is the disease known as Giardiasis. It originates from a microscopic parasite, which is an organism that feeds off another to survive, called Giardia lamblia. It may be spread through specific types of contact with infected people and even by animals such as dogs, cats, beavers, cattle, etc. Eating contaminated food and drinking contaminated water amplifies the risk of catching the parasite and contracting Giardiasis. Although it can be found anywhere on the surface of the planet, it is found more commonly in countries of high population that do not have proper sanitary conditions and do not have adequate water quality control (Delgado, A. (n.d.). Giardiasis (S. Kim,