Contaminated Water In Third World Countries

Unsafe water supplies are often contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals, and radiological hazards. In 2000, the World Health Organization and UNICEF identified some 2.4 billion people who did not have basic sanitation facilities, and 1.1 billion people without a safe drinking water supply. (Wagner, 2009) Some communities experienced diarrhea, caused by a variety of parasites, viruses, and bacteria that infect people as a result of contaminated drinking water or poor hygiene. In India, more than 500,000 children die from diarrhea every year. Like other tropical diseases, when diarrhea does not kill, it weakens, leaving people more susceptible to other infections, such as tuberculosis and HIV. (Whitman, 2008).

Are you ever thirsty for a nice cold glass of clean water? Most privileged people can find decent drinkable water in at least three places in the average kitchen. It’s a gift we commonly undermine. Unfortunately, many adults and young children aren’t granted this privilege. Striving each day to find clean water and still worry if it is safe enough to drink. All around the world some of the deadliest bacteria, diseases, and germs are alive in the water. Underprivileged countries do not have clean running water or even a decent well to draw from; this results in drinking from stagnate rivers, salty oceans, and contaminated puddles. Each year, thousands of people die from the bacteria living in unclean water. Sorrowfully, many of those numbers are young children! When a child becomes sick from bacteria found in their drinking water, an entire daily system becomes thrown out of balance. They cannot attend school or work, and it affects friends and family around them! Moreover, economical issues arise. Humans around the world have their whole lives ahead of them. Everyone should have daily access to clean drinking water to keep them healthy and growing. In this fallen world that’s not always the reality. The cycle that contaminated water brings is almost unstoppable.

Main Point: Third world countries lack accessibility to clean water exposing them to disease and harmful toxins that result in 2.4 million deaths annually (Bartram, 2010).

Clean water is essential to our basic needs as human beings and has been acknowledged as a basic human right according to the UN as of July 28, 2010. Still, 1 in 9 (782 million) people don’t have access to clean water, 1 in 3 (2.5 billion) don’t have access to adequate sanitation which results in the spread of often fatal and preventable disease. In a world where 2 in 5 people own a smartphone, it’s easy to forget that for some people even the most basic necessities are hard to come by. Approximately 3.5 million people die every year due to inadequate water supplies. Access to sanitation and safe drinking water could save the lives of 1.5 million children each year.

Two out of every five people living in Sub-Saharan Africa lack safe water. A baby there is 500 times more likely to die from water-related illness than one from the United States. This is a serious ongoing issue that requires the rest of the world to take action. Water spreads diseases easily if the necessary precautions are not taken. Many developing African countries don’t have sewage treatment, or the people don’t have methods to filter and disinfect. Once a person is sick either there is no way to cure them, or medical care is too expensive, so they are left untreated with a high risk of death. Although many believe that the fight for sanitary water in Africa is insurmountable, people in these developing countries can overcome their challenge to access clean water and avoid water-borne diseases through proper sewage treatment facilities, universal water filtration and medical care.

A major challenge and cause of serious medical issues in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of access to a clean water supply. There are 345 million people that lack access to water in Africa. Unfortunately, when water is available it is high in contamination. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they cannot be maintained properly to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as necessary and the people are unaware that the water may not be safe to drink. Oftentimes, when a source of water has been provided, the quantity of water is often given more attention over the quality of. Lack of clean drinking is the leading cause of diarrheal diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and causes 7.7% of deaths in Africa. Diarrhea is caused by numerous bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms most of which can be spread by contaminated water. The importance of diarrheal diseases has mostly been overlooked. Through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been some accomplishments during the

USnews.com finds that India is an area where a large majority of the population do not have access to clean water. Indians have to spend 62 more cents than the British for their water, which is estimated to be 20 percent of their average income. These are the circumstances that they have to live with in, where the only alternative is to use contaminated water. Those who choose to do so often face a risk of dying from an illness, more often from diarrhea. Exposure to dirty water accounts for the death of 140,000 kids in India.

Unclean water is a growing phenomenon that is immensely occurring in Latin America. Water is an important necessity in life. There are over 70 million people who have no access to clean water. Many families in Latin America cannot afford to send their children to school, so the children drop out of school to help work at the home. Many of the children who stay home to work walk for hours to get to the nearest water source, and most of the time, the water is unclean and not safe to drink. The unclean water is the only water accessible to families in Latin America. With the unclean water available, sanitation was not. It is very rare to find any form of sanitized water in most households in Latin America. Over 100 million people are not

Water contamination is one of the reasons are health and many other people’s health is not good. Half of the world’s hospital beds are being used for people that are suffering from a water related disease. Globally, about 1.8 billion people use a drinking water source that is contaminated with feces. Contaminated water can transmit many different diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Eighty-eight percent of diarrhea are estimated to be attributable from unsafe drinking water.

Domestic wells are usually shallower than public wells and are more susceptible to contamination from surface waters (Kumar et al., 2010). From 1971-2008, private wells were responsible for 67 percent (n=40) of reported outbreaks from groundwater (Wallender et al., 2013). Contamination of the groundwater that feeds drinking water wells results from infiltration from rivers, septic tank leach fields, and leaking sewer lines (all sewer lines leak). Cross contamination with septic system wastes due to poor design, maintenance or improper spacing is listed as the primary cause. Contamination of groundwater is reportedly widespread (Auld et al., 2004; Curriero et al., 2001; Fong et al., 2007; Thomas et al., 2006; Tornevi et al., 2015) and

There is a huge amount of people who do not have access to clean drinking water around the world. This highly affects their health and growth. Forty percent of Africa’s population and fifty-three percent of Asia’s population, lack access to clean drinking water. The access to clean water is a complicated issue, often influenced by politics, economics, climate, and social structure.

The contamination of water and drinking supplies with high concentrations of nutrients from animal waste has fatal effects on different organisms. “Elevated nitrates in drinking water...hinders the ability of the...blood to carry oxygen” (Hribar 4), which can cause serious health conditions such as birth defects, miscarriages, and can even lead to death in seniors and infants. Although nitrates may have the greatest consequences on younger and older individuals, adults that consume tainted water develop increased risks of “cancer and non-cancer diseases...diabetes...and neurodevelopmental defects” (Halden and Schwab 16). Contaminated drinking water poses a serious threat to human health, and can affect people’s happiness and quality of life.

Access to clean drinking water, piped directly into one’s household is not an option for millions households living in middle- and low-income countries. According to a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report, only 58 percent of the world’s population receives their drinking water from a piped connection which goes directly into their homes (WHO/UNICEF 2015). Households that leave their home to collect water rely on water sources that provide varying quality of drinking water. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) defines improved drinking water sources as those constructed to provide protection from outside contaminants, specifically fecal matter (WHO 2012). However, having access to an improved drinking water source does not

To filter the foul water, 100.1 mL were poured into a graduated cylinder. The water had a dark brown color, with tiny particles floating around in the substance. It was also murky and hard to see through with a small

The more turbidity in a body of water, the more opaque, or cloudy, the water will appear to be. Turbidity is also a form of an expression of light amount being scattered by water materials when light shines. The more scattered light there is in an example, the higher the turbidity is. A lower turbidity would makes vision much stronger for any aquatic life, while plants get more sunlight to perform photosynthesis. Swimming with lower turbidity would help with someone’s vision, while a higher turbidity would decrease someone’s vision. Managing turbidity is nearly impossible. The Stream Team got results of 10 NTU, which is a near perfect water quality. (USGS,