WATER QUALITY AND SANITATION

WATER QUALITY

The lack of sanitation plays a key role in the global water crisis. Due to not having clean water, developing countries often lack proper sanitation.

2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation; 1.1 billion still practice open defecation.

water.org

Figure 2: Figure 2 is a pie chart reflecting the number of people in the world who have access to clean sanitation and do not. The number of people who do have access to clean sanitation is 4.5 billion leaving the other 2.5 billion of the world without clean sanitation. That is over one-quarter of the population, almost half.

According to water.org 88% of global cases of diarrhea are estimated to be attributed to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death among children under five in the world.

Unproper sanitation includes not having a toilet, a sink with clean water to wash hands in and a shower. According to Charity Water sanitation alone can reduce water-related deaths by 37.5%. Hand washing can reduce water-related deaths by 35%.

Water quality is an essential problem within the global water crisis. In many developing countries, people may have access to limited water, but the water quality is poor. It is dirty and filled with bateria that cause diseases.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic is a leading cause of disease through water. Arsenic is a natural part of the earth's crust that is distributed into air, water and land. It is extremely toxic and can lead to chronic poisioning to people if they use their water to drink or prepare food. According to Charity Water there are many other diseases that come from water such as e'coli, salmonella typhi, schistomsoma, cholera vibrios and hepatitis A.

These diseases can be life threatening to people who do not have access to health care. Most people who do not have access to clean water do not have access to health care and cannot be helped.

According to water.org 3.4 million people die each year from a water related disease. That is almost the entire city of Los Angeles. 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries.

Every 21 seconds a child dies from a water related disease.

According to Charity Water 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are in children under five years old.

Water quality is extremely important and each person should have a right to clean water. According to the WHO 3.6% of global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.