Aug
5
Water is the most important resource that we have on the planet. Humans cannot live without water and it is used in all sorts of food production and manufacturing processes. Many people in the world do not have access to clean water.
This is part three of the series Developing The World which looks into the factors required for good quality of life.
Why Water Is Important
Starting with the obvious you need water to survive, with no water at all people cannot last much longer than a week even in ideal conditions (Packer 2008[1]). In extremely hot weather death can come as quickly as two days, this could be even faster if a lot of sweating is occurring through exercise.
There are also serious health side effects to chronic dehydration.
Water is also essential for food production whether growing crops or farming animals. Nothing will grow in places that don’t have water, you only have to compare a desert and rain forest for evidence of this.
In some areas collecting water takes up a significant amount of peoples time and energy each day. This is time that can’t be spent on education, farming, producing goods for sale.
If the only available water is polluted people will be forced to drink it. Consuming contaminated water can cause many different illnesses and diseases.
Do People Have Enough Water
There are over one billion people in the world that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Africa is one of the worst hit areas (Unicef 2007)[2].
Sanitation is a huge issue with many people getting sick when they have no choice but to drink polluted water.
Some people have to walk for several hours to get water each day. The amount time and energy spent doing this is time and energy that can’t be used for other important activities like child care, education, producing products for money and farming.
How Can We Improve
In many areas the biggest thing that can be done to increase access to clean water is reducing or stopping pollution. This pollution has many causes factories/mines that dump waste into rivers, innadequate or non-existant sanitation facilities. Anti pollution campaigns are important to prevent the pollution of water in the first place, while water treatment plants can be a great way to remove toxins whether they are naturally present or a result of pollution.
Some places though just have naturally low water reserves and the population has increased meaning there just isn’t enough water to go around any more. What can be done in places like this?
Certain areas have adequate water supplies running underground but people have no way of accessing them, digging wells in these areas can make provide a huge increase in the wellbeing of a whole community.
There is of course a vast water resource in the world … our oceans. Unfortunately the salt in it makes it unsuitable for consumption. This is where desalination comes in. Desalination is the process of removing the salt from water to make it more suitable for drinking. The main problem with desalination is that it is quite costly requiring large amounts of energy and expensive equipment. Hopefully improvements in technology can make the process less costly over time.
Reservoirs are another way to ensure a consistent water supply. There is a lot of debate over where reservoirs should be built and issues with displacement of people in the newly flooded areas, but there has been some success stories.
Take Action
There are a lot of charities that work to give people access to clean water. Many charities look to improve water supply as part of a whole package. Here are a few that focus specifically on water access issues.
References
- Packer, Randall K. (Accessed 21.7.2008) How long can the average person survive without water?<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-can-the-average&topicID=3> ↩
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Annual Report
2007 http://www.unicef.org/wes/files/UNICEF_WASH_2007_Annual_Report_18_June.pdf↩
Comments
Leave a Reply