Water and Sanitation
by Nicola Feldman and Joshua Robare
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In order to understand the world's water problem, it is important to understand the differences between improved and unimproved water sanitation and supply sources. An improved water supply means that people are getting their water piped into their home or yard, from a protected dug well, a borehole, a public tap, or from rainwater. Unimproved water sources are unprotected wells or springs and also surface water. Drinking the water from unimproved sources has many detrimental health affects and causes sickness and death.
Improved sanitation means that you have a toilet that leads to a septic tank, sewer system, and pit latrine. Other examples of improved sanitation are composting toilets and pit latrines with slabs. Unimproved sources are toilets that lead to yards or streets, hanging toilets, pit latrines with no slabs, and open flush toilets. These unimproved systems allow contaminated water to mix with clean water. Ingesting contaminated water leads to disease and death because just one gram of human feces can contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts, 100 parasite eggs. Although there are other factors leading to water related illness, around 90% of incidences of water-related diseases are due to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
Water scarcity and inadequate sanitation have become the leading causes of death and disease in the world, taking the lives of more than 14,000 people each day, 11,000 of them children under 5 years of age. According to the United Nations, at any one time half of the world's hospital beds are filled by patients suffering from water related diseases. Children are the most susceptible to water borne and sanitation related infectious diseases as their immune, digestive, reproductive and central nervous systems are less developed and thus more vulnerable. Children's immune systems are further weakened due to malnutrition which is ubiquitous in developing nations. Water-related diseases such as cholera, malaria, trachoma, schistosomiasis, worm infestations and guinea worm diseases are taking young lives by the thousands. But one of the biggest water-related killers you might find surprising.
Diarrhoea causes 1.8 million child mortalities every year, ranking it the second biggest child killer globally. Every 15 seconds a child dies from a diarrhoeal related disease. What makes diarrhoea so dangerous to children is it lowers their already vulnerable immunity levels, increasing mortality rates from other opportunistic diseases, particularly tuberculosis. And when it doesn't kill, repeated diarrhoea episodes caused by the unsanitary water can physically and mentally stunt children, affecting them for the rest of their lives. Diarrhoea is also a largely preventable cause of death. The disease is contracted by contact with human excreta and with improved sanitation the number of deaths can be reduced by one third. When proper sanitation is combined with hygiene the number of deaths can be reduced by two thirds.
Water Supply
The United Nations reports that one in five people in the developing world currently lack access to clean water. By 2025 two-thirds of the world's population is predicted to face similar realities . In sub-Saharan Africa, which has the lowest drinking water coverage rates, only 58% of the population has access to clean safe water .
There is a lot of progress being made to increase access to improved drinking water sources, with 1.2 billion people having gained access to improved drinking water sources over the last 15 years. However, this number provides a slight distortion of reality. There is an enormous disparity between the number of urban dwellers who gained access and the number of rural residences who gained access. In the past 15 years two thirds of those to gain access were from cities. Currently 95% of those in cities have access to improved drinking water sources as opposed to just 73% of rural dwellers.
Those lacking access to improved water supply face several hardships. One of the most debilitating is the long treks that must be taken to get water home. According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council women and girls in developing countries spend 40 billion hours every year fetching and carrying water from sources which are often far away and may not, after all, provide clean water. The long hike for the valuable resource negatively impacts the lives of girls. The time to fetch water is time that should be spent in school learning, and if the water is contaminated the subsequent sickness keeps them out of school even longer. Diseases cause both boys and girls to miss a total of 443 million school days each year.
What intensifies the fresh water problem is the lack of adequate sanitation facilities. The United Nations states that 40% of the world's population (more than 2.6 billion people) lack basic sanitation facilities The lack of sanitation facilities results in 2 million tones of human waste being dumped into rivers everyday. The combination of water scarcity and insufficient sanitation has created one of the most life-threatening crises facing the developing world today. And it's the children who are paying the biggest price.
In addition to the 1.8 million deaths attributed to diarrhoea, lack of water and sanitation causes schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by a worm that is often found in irrigation ditches and still river water that has been urinated or defecated in. Eighty eight million children under fifteen years are infected each year with schistosomes and it leads to 280,000 deaths. This disease causes damage to the bladder, liver and intestines; lowers the resistance of the infected person to other diseases, and often results in retarded growth and reduced physical and cognitive functions in children. Just like water supply, there is a huge disparity in access to improved water sanitation facilities in urban and rural areas. Sanitation in urban areas has reached 80 percent but in rural areas it is at only 39 percent. This gap needs to be bridged in order to ensure that all children have access to proper sanitation.
Progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals
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Meeting the global sanitation is not on track however. Globally, two in five people do not have access to improved sanitation, and global sanitation coverage has only grown by 9 percent since 1990. In order to halve the number of people without access to improved sanitation the rate of progress needs to be doubled. If growth continues at this rate, the target will fall short by half a billion people.
Both water and children are unquestionably linked to many of the other MDGs. The first Millennium Development Goal aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. It is estimated that on average each child in developing countries suffers from diarrhea three times a year. Parents who are already short on money must miss work to take care of their child and deal with any other expenses related to the illness. To ensure our basic needs, we all need 20 to 50 litres of water free from harmful contaminants each and every day. By guaranteeing this amount of water a day per person the number of work days missed can be drastically reduced.
The second MDG wants to create universal primary education for both boys and girls. Girls' school attendance in particular, is affected the most by inadequate water and sanitation facilities in schools. According to the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) the school attendance of girls would increase by 11 percent if there were toilet facilities. Sickness and fetching clean drinking water also steal days away from children attending school.
The fourth MDG has perhaps the most blatant link to children and water as it aims to reduce by two thirds the number of mortalities of children under five. Sicknesses such as diarrhoea kill almost two million children a year. Lack of access to clean water also causes other sicknesses to be increasingly devastating.
Solutions
There are many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, and governments that are working to alleviate the water and sanitation problem. The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is working to make schools a healthier place for children by creating school based water supply and sanitation projects. They believe that every school should have separate bathroom facilities for boys and girls and a source of clean drinking water at the schools. They are also working to include hygiene education in primary schools, so that children can take what they learn back to their families to help educate them as well.
Roundabout Outdoor is taking an innovative approach to making access to safe drinking water easier. Not only do they install water pumps that provide access to safe drinking water for up to 2,500 people, but they make using the pump easier by converting it into a merry-go-round. When kids play they are actually pumping water from underground to a tank where it can be easily accessed. This process makes it easier for water carries (who are usually women and children) to get and saves time and energy wasted on pumping.
The global charity WaterAid International is involved in a number of different water related activities. One particular aspect of their program is providing alternative means to gain access to clean drinking water. Rainwater is some of the cleanest water in the world, and by teaching villages how to harvest it safely they can increase the amount of water available to drink. They are also involved in teaching people how to protect the water sources that they have. A cornerstone of WaterAids strategy is community participation. By educating the locals they ensure that whatever projects are undertaken, there will be long term sustainability. Again the participation of children is vital as they are more apt to change their habits and encourage others to change theirs as well.
Recognizing the vastness of the water supply and sanitation problem the World Water Council has created the World Water Forum. This global meeting of NGOs, government officials, and citizens allows free exchange of information from people across the planet all dealing with similar water problems. The World Water Forum is also used to raise global awareness of water issues. The first forum was held in Marrakech in 1997 and the most recent one in Mexico in 2006. Among the issues discussed were water supply and sanitation. The forum also created campaign videos and posters to further educate people about the water and sanitation crises.
Getting Involved
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One way to take direct action is join the Global Volunteer Network's Big Push. In 2005 the G8 (comprised of Canada, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and Russia) made a commitment to fight extreme global poverty. By contacting the politicians of these countries you can encourage them to keep their pledge, and work towards ending poverty.
A second part of this push is to encourage countries that have not done so, to establish a timetable to meet the 0.7 percent of the gross national income for official development assistance. Currently countries such as Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United States have not created such timetables. By going to http://www.stopchildpoverty.org/live/directaction/ you can find out more information about the Big Push and how to contact your political members.
A second way to take action is to donate to UNICEF. As a branch of the UN, the money donated to UNICF is assured to go to any number of their child related programs, including the many that have to do with water supply and sanitation. There are several ways to donate to UNICEF that can be found here http://www.unicef.org/support/index.html. Besides a money donation you can purchase cards and gifts. The money from these purchases also goes to benefit children.
If you are looking for a more hands on approach there are many volunteer opportunities where you can have a direct impact on the water crises. Websites such as idealist.org can help you find a volunteer opportunity anywhere around the globe that is perfect for you.
Finally there are organizations such as WaterPartners International that work to alleviate the water and sanitation problem. So far WaterPartners has worked in over 144 communities and helped over 100,000 people. By funding them you are helping provide improved drinking water supplies and proper sanitation. Additionally, WaterPartners also provides water to countries needing emergency assistance. They have helped 100,000 people in Iraq gain access to water to drink in their relief efforts. You can donate online by going to water.org.