Clean Water and Sanitation
- 1.1 Billion lack access to safe water & 2.4 Billion lack basic sanitation
- 4 Million die annually (80%<5yrs)
- 30% of common recurrent diseases are Water and Sanitation related
- 100 Billion US$ productivity lost annually
- Women in Africa and Asia walk an average of 6 kilometers a day to collect water
The need for water also goes beyond the basic need to drink and eat. We need water to maintain hygenic conditions that promote health. So the water must be of adequate quality as well as quantity. The primary contaminant of water is feces, leading to a cycle of infection, diahrea, and death in the developing world. Water-borne diseases include diahrea, typhoid, viral hepatitus A, cholera, and dysentery. Inadequate quanitities of water lead to water-washed diseases. Furthermore there are water-based and water-related vector borne diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and Japanese encephalitis. Additionally water is often hard to find, far from homes, contaminated by too much arsnic and floride, and polluted by industry.
The impacts can be severe:
- 4 billion cases of diahrrea worldwide per year leading to about 2.3 million deaths (mostly children under 5) (water, sanitation, and hygience can reduce this number by 25 to 35%
- Intestinal worms can lead to malnutrition, anemia, retarded growth. They can be controlled through improved santitation.
- Globally about 200 million people are infected with schistosomiasis. 20 million of them suffer severe consequences. See the Schistosomiasis site for more information: http://www.schisto.org/
The WHO and UNICEF promote handwashing with soap, safe disposal of children's feces, and safe handling and storage of water as having the greatest impacts.
Addressing handwashing is cheap at 2 cents (US) per person per year for three years would cut diarrheal diseases by 40%. Many of the efforts thus far have teamed up with corporate sponsors to get the soap for free.
[Information on this page gleamed from www.thewaterpage.org.]
See also the information at IRF (pdf).
Basics II --from Lancet articles states "Unhygienic and unsafe environments place children at risk."
Water and Agriculture
Water, of course, also plays a major role in agriculture and thus food production. To provide adequate food security, many orgnizations are banding together to solve the challenge of providing water to agricultural endeavors. See African Water Investment Strategies for more information.
last updated 25 May 2006