Sultan Mohammed Giasuddin :
The water crisis is a health crisis. Nearly one million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases which could be reduced with access to safe water or sanitation. Access to safe water and sanitation contributes to improved health and helps prevent the spread of infectious disease. Globally, at least two billion people use a drinking water source contaminated. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. In least developed countries, 22% of health care facilities have no water service, 21% no sanitation service, and 22% no waste management service. Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
Key facts: i. In 2017, 71% of the global population (5.3 billion people) used a safely managed drinking-water service – that is, one located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination. ii. 90% of the global population (6.8 billion people) used at least a basic service. A basic service is an improved drinking-water source within a round trip of 30 minutes to collect water. iii. 785 million people lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are dependent on surface water. iv. Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faces. V. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485000 diarrheal deaths each year. vi. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. vii. In least developed countries, 22% of health care facilities have no water service, 21% no sanitation service, and 22% no waste management service. Safe and readily available water is important for public health, whether it is used for drinking, domestic use, food production or recreational purposes. Improved water supply and sanitation, and better management of water resources, can boost countries’ economic growth and can contribute greatly to poverty reduction. In 2010, the UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Everyone has the right to sufficient, continuous, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.
Drinking water services: Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1 calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water. The target is tracked with the indicator of “safely managed drinking water services” – drinking water from an improved water source that is located on premises, available when needed, and free from chemical contamination. In 2017, 5.3 billion people used safely managed drinking-water services – that is, they used improved water sources located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination. The remaining 2.2 billion people without safely managed services in 2017 included: i. 1.4 billion people with basic services, meaning an improved water source located within a round trip of 30 minutes. ii. 206 million people with limited services, or an improved water source requiring more than 30 minutes to collect water. iii. 435 million people taking water from unprotected wells and springs. Iv. 144 million people collecting untreated surface water from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Sharp geographic, socio-cultural and economic inequalities persist, not only between rural and urban areas but also in towns and cities where people living in low-income, informal, or illegal settlements usually have less access to improved sources of drinking-water than other residents.
Water and health: Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. Absent, inadequate, or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals to preventable health risks. This is particularly the case in health care facilities where both patients and staff are placed at additional risk of infection and disease when water, sanitation, and hygiene services are lacking. Globally, 15% of patients develop an infection during a hospital stay, with the proportion much greater in low-income countries. Inadequate management of urban, industrial, and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. Diarrhea is the most widely known disease linked to contaminated food and water but there are other hazards. In many parts of the world, insects that live or breed in water carry and transmit diseases such as dengue fever. Some of these insects, known as vectors, breed in clean, rather than dirty water, and household drinking water containers can serve as breeding grounds. The simple intervention of covering water storage containers can reduce vector breeding and may also reduce contamination of water at the household level.
Economic and social effects: When water comes from improved and more accessible sources, people spend less time and effort physically collecting it, meaning they can be productive in other ways. This can also result in greater personal safety by reducing the need to make long or risky journeys to collect water. Better water sources also mean less expenditure on health, as people are less likely to fall ill and incur medical costs, and are better able to remain economically productive. With children particularly at risk from water-related diseases, access to improved sources of water can result in better health, and therefore better school attendance, with positive longer-term consequences for their lives.
Water and sanitation crisis in Bangladesh: Bangladesh has one of the highest population densities in the world, with a population of 165 million living within 57,000 square miles. Of those 165 million people, 5 million lack safe water and 85 million lack improved sanitation. Lack of access to safe water and improved sanitation facilities in rural areas, overcrowded conditions, and a lack of healthy ways of disposing waste in urban centers, all contribute to the water and sanitation crisis in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has an abundance of water, with around 24,000 km rivers flowing through its fertile land. But providing water safe enough of everyone to drink is a complex national problem. Floods, cyclones, earthquakes and drought are all common in Bangladesh, causing devastating upheaval to people’s lives. Developing clean water, toilet and hygiene services that can reach everyone is extremely difficult and climate change is only making that harder.
Challenges: Climate change, increasing water scarcity, population growth, demographic changes and urbanization already pose challenges for water supply systems. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. Re-use of wastewater, to recover water, nutrients, or energy, is becoming an important strategy. Increasingly countries are using wastewater for irrigation – in developing countries this represents 7% of irrigated land. While this practice if done inappropriately poses health risks, safe management of wastewater can yield multiple benefits, including increased food production. Options for water sources used for drinking water and irrigation will continue to evolve, with an increasing reliance on groundwater and alternative sources, including wastewater. Climate change will lead to greater fluctuations in harvested rainwater. Management of all water resources will need to be improved to ensure provision and quality.
(Sultan Mohammed Giasuddin, Consultant, Community Development Centre -CODEC)
