Clean water and health - News paper article
This year's United Nations World Day for Water is being held this week - Jaime Cox reports
ALMOST half the world's population have no acceptable means of sanitation. World Day for Water is about increasing awareness of global water problems.
The annual event is about making concrete efforts to provide clean drinking water, improve health and increase awareness on a global scale. This year World Day for Water, held on 22 March, is being organised by the World Health Organisation, and its focus is on the link between water and health.
Water and health: the link
Improved water quality, sanitation and personal hygiene significantly reduce the spread of water-related diseases, which are currently widespread...
Lack of improved domestic water supply leads to disease. Waterborne diseases, such as cholera, diarrhoea, viral hepatitis A, dysentery and typhoid, are transmitted by drinking contaminated water.
Skin and eye infections (including trachoma), are spread when there is a lack of sufficient quantities of water for washing and personal hygiene, and people are unable to keep their hands, bodies and domestic environments clean and hygienic.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than two million people (most of whom are children), die each year from diarrhoeal disease linked to inadequate water supply, and another million die annually from malaria.
Intestinal worms infect about 10 per cent of the population of the developing world. Intestinal parasitic infections can lead to malnutrition, anaemia and retarded growth, depending upon the severity of the infection. It is estimated that six million people are blind from trachoma and the population at risk from this disease is approximately 500 million. Provision of adequate quantities of water has been found to reduce the median infection rate by 25 per cent.
The WHO also reports that in China alone, 30 million people suffer from chronic fluorisis, and 1.5 million are infected with hepatitis A.
And preventing disease has a direct impact on the prevention of poverty. According to the WHO, there are globally 2.4 billion people living without basic sanitation and 1.1 billion living without basic access to improved water resources - and these are amongst the poorest groups in the world.
Sanitation and health
The WHO reports that sanitation facilities interrupt the transmission of much faecal-oral disease at its most important source by preventing human faecal contamination of water and soil. Evidence suggests that sanitation is at least as effective in preventing disease as improved water supply. However, it involves major behavioural changes. Sanitation is likely to be particularly effective in controlling worm infections. Adults often think of sanitation in adult terms, but the safe disposal of children's faeces is of critical importance.
Children are the main victims of diarrhoea and other faecal-oral disease, and also the most likely source of infection. Child-friendly toilets, and the development of effective school sanitation programmes, are important and popular strategies for promoting the demand for sanitation facilities and enhancing their impact.
Adequate quantities of safe water and good sanitation facilities are necessary for healthy living, but their impact will depend upon how they are used - these three key hygiene behaviours are of utmost importance:
- Hand washing with soap (or ash or other aid)
- Safe disposal of children's faeces
- Safe water handling and storage
Further information is available from the address at the foot of this page. The organisers of World Water Day allow donations by cheque, made payable to “World Water Day 2001", and sent to the address below: World Water Day, Water, Sanitation and Health Unit (WSH), World Health Organisation, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
Jaime Cox - Assistant Editor
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