Some terminology:
- Drinking Water is water that is used for domestic purposes, including drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.
- Access to drinking water means that the source of water is less than 1 kilometre away from the place it will be used. It is possible to obtain at least 20 litres per person per day on a reliable basis.
- Safe drinking water is water with bacterial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet World Health Organization guidelines or national standards for drinking water quality.
- Access to safe drinking water is the proportion of a population using improved drinking water sources. This includes access to household connections (piped water), public standpipes (similar to free-standing faucets or pumps), bore hole (similar to a well, but with pipes), dug wells, protected natural springs, or clean rainwater.
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| Proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water |
Unclean or unsafe drinking water is highly dangerous, namely due to the risk of disease. Cholera, schistosomiasis, hookworm (and other parasites), hepatitis, and even common diarrhoea are diseases commonly contracted from dirty water. In LEDCs, where people are most likely to encounter unsafe drinking water, and where healthcare is often lacking, these diseases can prove deadly.
Read this article, by Jan Eliasson, former Swedish ambassador to the US and President of the UN General Assembly, and Susan Blumethal, former assistant surgeon general of the US. They discuss access to clean water across the globe, namely the factors and effects of this critical issue.
Dying For a Drink of Clean Water - The Washington Post
So the question remains - with the dangers so clear, why isn't access to safe drinking water universal? What factors affect access to clean water for household purposes?
- Water supplies are unevenly distributed
- The world has abundant supplies of freshwater, yet these supplies are unevenly distributed between, and even within countries.
- Stores of water are being depleted
- Populations are growing at such a rapid rate that easily accessible surface water stores are being depleted across the globe
- 1/3 of the earth's population lives in countries whose water supplies are under moderate to high stress; their consumption levels exceed available supply by 20%
- By 2025, this proportion will rise to 2/3 of the global population
- Competition with industry and agriculture
- Manufacturing is increasing to such an extent that it is predicted global water use by industrial sources will double from 2000 rates by 2025
- Agriculture currently makes up a staggering 70% of water use, and will increase between 50% and 100% by 2025
- Pollution
- Pollution of water supplies is a huge issue, as it makes existing clean water supplies unusable
- In LEDCs, where water scarcity is worst felt, the need to industrialize sidelines the preservation of the integrity of clean water
- See this article about governments and corporations, even in MEDCs like the United States, ignore the right of their citizens to access clean water.
- Toxic Waters - The New York Times
- Problems like eutrophication (abundant growth of algae), acidification, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs, such as the pesticide DDT which is subject to biomagnification/bioaccumulation, and can be deadly to those animals high up in the food chain)
- When pollutants descend into the groundwater, dilution becomes very slow, and purification very expensive. This is especially dangerous in Asian countries, where over 50% of water supplies come from groundwater
- Cost
- Conflicts between urban and rural water users may result in government legislation and quotas (ex. USA and Australia), or the deliberate increase in water price so as to discourage waste or pollution
- This is difficult for those living in LEDCs, where clean water is already difficult to find
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| Industrial and agricultural interests compete with people for access to clean water. |
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| An Indonesian family uses polluted water to bathe. |
A TED Talk discussing the ability to convert dirty water into drinkable water. Technology like this could spell success for millions of people currently suffering without access to clean water.
