Water for Everyone - The Time Has Come

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2007 by Chaney, Kirby A

The average American uses 160 gallons of water [Paul Ehrlich and the Population Bomh/VBS] and discharges an average of two-tenths of a pound of pollution back to the environment every day. In that same twenty-four-hour period, nearly five thousand people globally die from causes traceable to a lack of access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that 1.1 billion people do not have access to improved water-supply sources, and 2.4 billion do not have access to any type of improved sanitation facilities. Every time those of us who live in the western, developed world draw safe water from the tap or flush waste down a drain, we take for granted the critical, life-giving nature of water and sanitation and our inexpensive and abundant access to them, yet we often forget that many people struggle through their day and even die for the lack of them.

In January 2007 a British Medical Journal (BMJ) poll named the "sanitary revolution" as the most important medical milestone since 1840, the year the journal began. More than 11,300 readers of the BMJ named the introduction of piped water to peoples' homes and sewers rinsed by water ahead of antibiotics, anesthesia, vaccines, and the discovery of the structure of DNA as the greatest medical breakthrough in a century and a half (BMJ, 24 March 2007 [Vol 334, No 7594]). Yet unhealthy sanitary conditions continue as the norm in much of the developing world. Each year poor hygiene, unsafe water, and inadequate sanitation lead to more than 1.5 million deaths from diarrheal disease in low and middle-income countries.

According to the WHO, the reasons that these conditions persist include the following:

* lack of priority given to the water and sanitation sector,

* lack of financial resources,

* lack of sustainability of water supply and sanitation services,

* poor hygiene behaviors, and

* inadequate sanitation in public places, including hospitals, health centers, and schools.

Not enough emphasis is given to solving these problems. While access to clean water has improved since the turn of the twenty-first century, sanitary conditions are actually getting worse for the developing world (Meeting the MDG Drinking Water and Sanitation Target, A Mid-Term Assessment of Progress, World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund, 2004). The cascading effects of the resulting illnesses are huge roadblocks to further development of these disadvantaged millions. Until we recognize and work together to solve water and sanitation shortages, poverty will continue to exist in increasing contrast to our own relative wealth and comfort. Conversely, a concerted effort to provide water and sanitation could enable and accelerate the development of impoverished countries.

THE PLAN FORWARD

Cost is certainly an obstacle. But cost alone does not prevent us from tackling these important issues. We can afford to spread access to water and sanitation. The Millennium Declaration signed by 189 heads of state at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit established a set of eight goals, termed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs provide targets that aim to end extreme poverty worldwide. At least four of the goals, those addressing health and disease, environmental sustainability, child mortality, and maternal health, are directly related to advances in clean water and sanitation. The United Nations seeks to achieve the MDGs by 2015. Thus far, though, progress on the MDGs is behind schedule, with some estimating achievement at the current pace delayed to 2050. Oxfam, a consortium of nonprofit organizations working to end global poverty, calculates that meeting the MDG targets on health, education, water, and sanitation would require an extra $47 billion a year. This amount seems large until you compare it with annual global military spending of Sl trillion, the $160 billion that the world spends every year on jewelry, or the $40 billion spent on pet food.

Wealthier countries need to provide the lion's share of funding to solve the problems of developing countries. The developed world does not see this as an urgent matter, though, because its access to water and sanitation is so routine and reliable that it fails to perceive contaminated water as still one of the most debilitating problems existing in the world today. This problem is not only about a safe drink of water but also about the widespread effects on poverty, productivity, and development. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, one part of the world most deprived of water access, women and girls spend a large proportion of their energy just gathering and carrying water (UNICEF, 2005). The time and energy that they spend hauling water from a distant source is not available to them for learning or for other productive work. The chain reaction caused by this labor slows further individual and community development and progress. Water supply and sanitation projects have been ranked among the top ten most cost-effective ways to advance global welfare. A WHO cost-benefit analysis calculated that every dollar invested in water yields an economic return of between ten and twelve dollars. The total investment required to provide a clean, safe, and reliable water supply point in Africa costs from twenty to fifty dollars per capita, depending on local climate, topography, and the technology employed (WHO).