| A Drink of Water | Christopher J. Barrett | | SCI-275 | 3/24/2013 |

|

Sanitation and drinking-water are universally accepted as being essential for human life, dignity and human development (World Health Organization, 2012). Water is required for life to exist; it is the most basic of sustaining building blocks. Global access to clean (sanitary) and sustainable water supplies continues to be a challenge in an age of ever-increasing population and development. Despite the ongoing challenge, the scarcity of global water resources has only begun to be addressed by the United Nations and other not-for-profit charitable organizations. One of the most important recent milestones has been the recognition in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly of the human right to water and sanitation. The Assembly recognized the right of every human being to have access to sufficient water for personal and domestic uses (between 50 and 100 liters of water per person per day), which must be safe, acceptable and affordable (water costs should not exceed 3 per cent of household income), and physically accessible (the water source has to be within 1,000 meters of the home and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes) (United Nations, 2013). UN system activities specially focus on the sustainable development of fragile and finite freshwater resources, which are under increasing stress from population growth, pollution and the demands of agricultural and industrial uses (United Nations, 2013). The earth is now trying to sustain a population of almost seven billion people that all require access to a clean water supply in order to live. A World Economic Forum report in 2010 stated the demand for water is expected to increase, with an analysis suggesting there will be a forty percent global shift between forecasted demand and available supply by 2030 (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2011). Worldwater.org estimates 780-million people lack access to clean water, two and one-half times the population of the United States, with 34-million people dying of a water-borne illness or disease each year (worldwater.org, 1990-2013). In addition, approximately 2.5 billion people don’t have access to a proper means of human or livestock waste disposal, contributing to the contamination of the usable or drinkable water sources by fecal matter, a root cause of life-threatening sicknesses of which eighty-eight percent of global cases of diarrhea is estimated to be attributable to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene (worldwater.org, 1990-2013). We, as a global nation, will generally take for granted that water is a renewable resource, available on demand and at the flip of a facet handle. However, water fit for human use and consumption must also be considered as finite; with a mere 2.5 percent of earth’s water being fresh, with two-thirds of that percentage frozen in glaciers and permanent snow cover (worldwater.org, 1990-2013). The danger of future global water shortages remains real, but for the “majority of the nearly one billion people without safe drinking water, today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access.” (worldwater.org, 1990-2013) Access to a viable water source and proper waste disposal eludes a large portion of the global population. In the developed portion of the world there are technologies and compliance policies in place that ensure water is treated adequately in order to provide proper drinking water to the masses. In the developing or under-developed parts of the world there is generally no compliance policies that dictate how water is to be treated; the shortcoming of water management policies is likely due to the lack of infrastructure to support the means to safe water. Due the lack of infrastructure to support an environment for safe water, many organizations seeking to provide safe water have elected to focus on education, “ensuring poor people’s access to safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation…will improve the quality of life of millions of individuals” (Prüss-Üstün, Bos, Gore, & Bartram, 2008). Focus for a moment on the need for adequate sanitation; it is the need for adequate sanitation that will protect the water supplies in areas now affected by rampant outbreaks of fecal-to-oral transmission and fecal-to-mucus membrane transmission sicknesses (Prüss-Üstün, Bos, Gore, & Bartram, 2008). From this data it can be extrapolated that the majority of water-related illness is caused by the presence of fecal matter (excreta) in the water supply, due to inadequate sanitation services. Furthermore, it is speculated that approximately ten percent of the total worldwide burden of disease could be prevented by improvements related to drinking-water, sanitation, and hygiene and water resource management. Additionally, it can be defined that if the developing portions of the world were to focus upon either the water supply or adequate sanitation first the health of the water supply and the population would follow (Prüss-Üstün, Bos, Gore, & Bartram, 2008). Presently the World Health Organization (WHO), coupled with the United Nations, UNWater Program (UNW), is creating a recognizable difference in the water supplies of the world and the proliferation the diseases caused by tainted water; the majority of the change came by the means of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are defined by eight international development goals adapted at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in the year 2000. Since the goals were adopted, the UN and serveral other international agencies have been working toward completion of the eight gaols which is set for 2015. Several of the MDG can be related to the development of acceptable water resources. For example, one of the goals is to reduce child mortality rates; if water is clean and sanitary conditions will be promoted, reducing the amount of diarrheal illnesses from the reported result of 1.5 million deaths each year, with the majority of the deaths being children (Prüss-Üstün, Bos, Gore, & Bartram, 2008). The second MDG that would be addressed by addressing water and sanitation is the combating diseases. Water-borne illness accounts for approximately ten percent of the global disease burden would be lifted. Finally, ensuring environmental sustainability would be significantly easier if the global water supplies were to be deemed safe and secure. The investigating entities of the MDG have continued to work on the goals since the year 2000. In a publication, for the purpose of reporting progress toward the goals, the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 explained that data in 2010 reflected that 89 percent of the global population in need of improvements was utilizing improved drinking water sources, up from 76 per cent in 1990. The report continues to extrapolate that if the current data trend continues approximately 92 percent of the global population will be covered by improved water and sanitation resources by 2015 (World Health Organization, 2012). The positive data report is reduced in stature because; Coverage with improved drinking water sources for rural populations is still lagging. In 2010, 96 per cent of the urban population used an improved drinking water source, compared with 81 per cent of the rural population. In absolute terms, because of population growth, the number of people without an improved source in urban areas actually increased. In rural areas, on the other hand, the number of people without an improved source of water decreased, from 1.1 billion in 1990 to 653 million in 2010. However, the gap between urban and rural areas still remains wide, with the number of people in rural areas without an improved water source five times greater than in urban areas (United Nations, 2013). I would submit that my personal plan to reach the goal of sanitary and sustainable water supply for the global population would have similarities to that of the United Nations. First, it would be required to address the areas of the globe that required the most attention in relationship to the requirements for proper sanitation and water. In order to accomplish the preliminary research and apply resourses to the area most in need, an analysis of mortality rates and the percentage of water-borne illnesses causing the deaths. Consider the following map example from the UN study:

(World Health Organization, 2012)

The map illustrates, in red, the areas that have the highest mortality rates Percentage of deaths attributable to WASH-related disease or injury (World Health Organization, 2012). WASH is an acronym for “Water, sanitation and hygiene.” The gathering of mortality rates may become a tedious process of data collection and may take one year or more. As the data sets reveal the areas of the globe that are most in need, site visits will be required in order to access the commitment from government entities and the direct and individual needs of each specific site in order to provide the best possible outcome, a task that may take two years or more. During the time period leading up to the execution of the action plans for each individual site, funding streams will be required in order to facilitate the installation of the components. Next, once each site has an individual action plan and the funding stream established, the installation of the required equipment will take place. The installation will require the drilling and prepareing of water wells and the digging and installation of proper waste facilities. Then, it would be the duty of the organization creating the new facilities to educate the population of the area that will be utilizing the supplied facilities. Then as the facilities are established and put into regular use, occansional monitoring will take place in order to facilitate usage percentage, maintenance items required and continued evaluation for additional facilities required. The largest challenge to the action plan presented above is the shear scope and scale of the complete project. There is a large amount of commitment required from countries in need of the assistance; a commitment that may be difficult to obtain and retain and may require constant vigilance in order to establish both. Furthermore, there will be a labor force required to perform the duties of the installations and may require specialsts in the field. After project implementation and utilization, it will be the reduction in the mortality rate associated with WASH-related illness. The goal of the project is to reduce illness and provide clean water resources. If the population of the area where the installation was performed is in a healthier state, the project success will be realized. It has long been argued that clean water and proper sanitation comprised one of the most important medical advancements ever made. We as a global population know how to bring people clean water and improved sanitation; it is the implementation of the action plans through organizations like the United Nations and the World Health Organization that will bring populations of the globe that are in need a drink of water.

References
(1990-2013). Retrieved March 22, 2013, from worldwater.org: http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/#

Prüss-Üstün, A., Bos, R., Gore, F., & Bartram, J. (2008). Safer water, better health: costs, benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. Geneva: World Health Organization.

United Nations. (2013). Global Issues. Retrieved March 22, 2013, from Water: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/water/

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). (2011). State of World Population 2011, People and possibilities in a world of 7 billion. United Nations Population Fund.

Vörösmarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J., & Lammers, R. B. (2000, July 14). Global Water Resources: Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth. Science, 289(5477), pp. 284-288.

World Health Organization. (2012). UN-water global annual assessment of sanitation and drinking-water (GLAAS) 2012 report: the challenge of extending and. Geneva: World Health Organization.