About 3 million people die each year from a water related disease. And almost every 20 seconds a child dies from a water related disease. At any given time, almost half of the world’s hospital beds will be occupied by patients with a disease associated with water. Including lack of access, poor sanitation, and bad hygiene in developing nations. Water becomes contaminated by waste that gets into the water from dumping and/or poor filtration or processing of the water. Many harmful chemicals are present in tap water that we drink even in America.
Diseases
There are many water related diseases. Just to list a few cholera, Guinea Worm, e. coli, dysentery, salmonella and many diarrhea related conditions. These are caused by pollutants in the water. Corporations, and governments dump waste into rivers and other locations that end up in people’s mouths. The diseases caused by this are often times fatal.
Cholera: This is a bacterial disease of the small intestine. Cholera make you incredibly dehydrated and watery diarrhea. This is what has become an epidemic in Haiti, killing 2,013
Guinea Worm: this is a parasitic infection that grows down through the leg or foot. You become infected by drinking water with its larvae. Found in 4 African nations.
Many of the pollutants in water are man made, but some are natural. Including arsenic, mercury, chlorine, asbestos, and parasites. All which cause severe diseases. There are cheap ways to filter these out so that children and adults will be safe from disease. It is easy. But none of us have done it yet. Some organizations are trying, but they need help!
What can you do?
In order to stop waterborne illnesses we need to step upon the quality of the water that contains these bacteria. If we can get it to the point the quality of the infrastructure is safe and free from external contaminates then it will lower disease rates. Also if we can raise the level of awareness as with most problems it will help as more people will want to help since more people will know about it, in order to raise awareness you could do something as simple as email your friends or something as radical as book a time on nbc or some other news network to talk about water.
Conclusion
Waterborne illnesses kill millions each year. Mainly children in developing nations. These tragedies have plagued our world, and they are mainly our fault. According to water.org the ancient Romans had better infrastructure and water than half the people alive today. We need to stop that. It is very important.
Sources:
http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_43106.html
http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/water-contaminants.php
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